


Scratchbent

by timefornothing



Series: Scratchbent Universe [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Caliginous Romance | Kismesis, Drinking, Fighting, Flushed Romance | Matesprits, Homestuck - Freeform, I'll add more as I think of them, Mind Control, Multi, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Scratched session, au where everyone's pretty much alive, but come back?, canon characters come in later, canon divergence towards the end, kind of, lots of bad jokes, lots of people die though, lots of scratches, original characters make up the majority of the story, shitty communication skills
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-14
Updated: 2015-08-17
Packaged: 2018-04-03 08:08:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 59,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4093480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timefornothing/pseuds/timefornothing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Your name is Luke Baker, you just turned 17, and you have no idea how to play this game. What you do know, however, is that you were meant to save everyone.</p><p>--</p><p>A group of kids (and one troll) embark on a Sburb session at the prompting of their friend, only to find out they'd been doomed from the start. They're left reeling without a lifeline, struggling against the game and themselves. Sent from scratched timeline to scratched timeline, they struggle to find out just why they're here and how to save the game.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Kids: Enter ==>

**Author's Note:**

> alright, i first want to give a huuuuge shoutout to sp8derbite for being the beta to this fic. it never would have gotten done without her!!
> 
> also a giant thanks to everyone who reads this. it started out as a tiny drabble and turned into this monster of a fic. i'll post every couple weeks or so (since it's so big) and if you want any bonus content (or maybe just to talk to me??) check me out on tumblr! my url is davetrash, and i have a scratchbent tag for the shitty doodles and headcanon things that helped me with this fic.
> 
> (if anyone cares, the song that inspired this fic was "12 Through 15" by Mayday Parade, and that becomes more obvious as the story goes on. (: )
> 
> thanks a ton, enjoy!!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"My life closed twice before its close;_   
>  _It yet remains to see_   
>  _If Immortality unveil_   
>  _A third event to me,_
> 
> _So huge, so hopeless to conceive,_  
>  _As these that twice befell._  
>  _Parting is all we know of heaven,_  
>  _And all we need of hell."_  
>  -Emily Dickinson

A young man sits in his bedroom. It just so happens that today, June 13th, 2015, is his 17th birthday. This young man's name is Luke Baker, and the tale of Luke Baker is a twisted one. It involves a daring plot spanning across worlds and universes and even realities as he races to save his best friends, save his love from a doomed fate, and ascend to the highest level of the gods.

But before any of that can happen, it starts with an online chat.

Your computer dings yet again, the third time in two minutes. No one else would bother bugging you repeatedly this early, so you sigh to yourself and set down the drawing you had been working on. Surprise surprise, it's your friend Emma.

-enforcedSecurity [ES] began pestering launchingBerevement [LB] at 11:32 AM EST-  
ES: Luke! Happy Birthday my friend! I hope you are ready for the adventure of a lifetime, something tells me it is going to be an exciting day. :-)  
ES: You DID receive your package from Ally, correct? She said she put it in the mail in time!  
ES: Oh, maybe you are playing now! We need to establish the correct chain before we can enter!

You sigh out loud this time, reaching up to respond. Honestly, you didn't know what she was talking about half the time.

LB: thanks emma  
LB: and no im not playing yet  
LB: havent even opened it tbh  
ES: Why not? We should begin as soon as everyone logs on!  
LB: that means we're waiting on ally  
LB: ally is NEVER up before noon and its not even nine yet there  
ES: Oh, I am sure she will be waking up soon. :-) In fact, sooner than all of us!  
ES: But yes, she has not logged on yet. But soon.  
LB: yeah yeah whatever you say  
LB: message me when its time or whatever you and your weird dreams call it  
-launchingBereavement [LB] ceased being pestered by enforcedSecurity [ES] at 11:37 AM EST-

You turn away once again, stealing a relaxed glance around your room.

Everything you did was relaxed. Even when you thought you were going to have something bad happen, you were chill. No need to worry. What's gonna happen, will happen badly. Always. So why bother? 

You enjoy artwork of any kind, especially black and white pencil sketches. Lots of your artwork was black and white. Most of your walls are covered in your various sketches, including a couple mailed to you by your friends--

Speak of the devil, your computer is chiming again. Man, you're just so popular on your birthday.

-finiteJacker [FJ] began pestering launchingBereavement [LB] at 11:40 AM EST-  
FJ: luuuuuuke! :D happy birthday, big man!  
LB: hey thanks fran  
LB: thanks for the drawing too just got it yesterday  
FJ: oh good, i was hoping you'd like it! i worked suuuper hard on it  
FJ: even though i'm not as good at drawing as you :)  
LB: shucks frannie don't make a man blush  
FJ: hehe :)  
LB: hey by any chance has emma been bugging you about playing some game lately  
FJ: oh yes! she said we're all going to play together since you got your copy!  
FJ: just waiting for ally to wake up, the sleepy head!  
LB: yeah fat chance that happens any time soon  
FJ: oh, hold on! i'll brb!  
LB: later  
-finiteJacker [FJ] became idle at 11:46 AM EST-

That was always like Fran, saying something sweet and then running off to do something. Usually it was to message someone else online, or to grab food she left burning on the stove. 

You look at the drawing she sent you in the mail. Obviously, she hadn't drawn any of it. Fran never does anything herself. She always has someone else to do it for her, or uses their projects. (Also see: stealing.) This must be something someone in her class had done.

Ding, ding! Ding, ding! Ding, ding!

Six dings? Alright, Emma, this is getting ridiculous.

-analyzingRicochet [AR] began pestering launchingBereavement [LB] at 11:48 AM EST-  
AR: dude what did you say to emma  
AR: she's going crazy  
AR: like more crazy than usual  
AR: about some game too?? like what?  
AR: did i do something wrong??  
AR: oh god i did didn't i  
AR: oh also happy birthday dude  
LB: thanks  
LB: and i said exactly nothing to her shes been weird all week  
LB: getting all hyped up about this weird game  
LB: idk why shes even all pumped it doesnt even sound cool  
AR: aw man don't say that, she's really excited  
AR: if she thinks its so cool it probably is  
LB: . . .  
AR: what?  
LB: nothing  
LB: so you have a copy too?  
AR: yeah, all loaded and ready to go when she says so!  
AR: she said something about how i get to go first?  
AR: so i must be pretty special or something  
LB: yeah thats it  
LB: anyways ill message you later  
LB: i gotta get some stuff done before i can play  
AR: alright, cool  
AR: later birthday dude!  
-analyzingRicochet [AR] ceased pestering launchingBereavement [LB] at 11:53 AM EST-

As soon as you move away from the computer, it dings again. Sheesh, can't a man get any work done? And by work, you mean finish this super cool drawing of a sword you saw on one of your anime shows.

Holy shit, Ally is awake.

-ardorDeviant [AD] began pestering launchingBereavement [LB] at 11:53 AM EST-  
AD: even though it is an ungodly time to be awake, i am doing it all for the man of the hour  
AD: the man of the DAY, you could say  
AD: because as he is my best friend, he deserves something special  
AD: so my presence is my gift to you. happy birthday luke <3   
LB: ahaha thanks ally  
LB: i am truly blessed  
AD: yes, yes you are  
AD: did you get my package??  
LB: wow enthusiasm this early? is ally growing up?  
AD: stfu it’s just a good present  
LB: yeah i got it  
LB: havent opened it yet  
AD: oh you need to!  
AD: and not just because emma's making us all play this fucking game  
AD: there’s something else in there too  
AD: something special (:  
LB: its not another love letter is it  
AD: omg let it go i was like twelve  
LB: it was four months ago  
AD: stfu!!!!  
AD: just go open it!  
LB: k just give me a sec chill  
AD: luke i am so chill  
AD: i am so unbelievably chill right now, i could fall back asleep  
AD: look, there i go...  
AD: zzzzzzzzz  
LB: lol  
LB: you sure its not just cuz youre never up this early  
AD: ZZZZZZZZZ

You turn away from your computer to grab the package on your desk. It was wrapped in bright blue paper, and very neatly. No doubt she had worked hard on it. She kind of has a minor crush on you.

Now that you think about it, she kind of has a minor crush on everyone.

You tear the paper and open the package, not surprised to see the game on top. However, it's what's underneath that really throws you off.

LB: ally  
LB: ally what  
AD: (:  
LB: ALLY  
LB: where did you get these???  
LB: ive literally never found these in any store EVER  
LB: i couldnt even find them ONLINE  
AD: omg whoa i got the capital letters out of you  
AD: guess i did good huh (:  
LB: ALLY  
AD: hahaha idk man they've been in my apartment forever  
AD: and i'm shit at art so i figure you could use them better than i could  
AD: idk what's so special about those colored pencils anyways  
LB: their pigment is made out of like super rare minerals  
LB: like it takes YEARS to gather enough pigment for each one  
LB: each individual one is said to have crazy properties too  
AD: i'm gonna stop you there  
AD: pls don't go on a nerdy art tirade  
AD: you know i'm just gonna tune you out  
LB: you would never tune me out  
LB: you love me too much  
AD: shut up omg  
LB: you know youre this much closer to a date now that you got me these  
AD: stOP we live in different states D:  
LB: lol  
LB: but seriously thanks  
AD: of course, luke (:  
AD: but hey, emma's bugging the shit out of me  
AD: we better get this game up and going soon  
AD: have you talked to ivanna leave yet  
LB: your jokes with his name get worse every time you know that  
LB: and no i havent  
AD: huh  
AD: he'll message you soon enough  
AD: he's always right on time"/span>  
LB: oh would you look at that  
LB: he just did  
LB: man this dude is freaky how does he do that  
AD: magic probably  
LB: yeah probably  
LB: k im gonna go talk to him  
AD: kk talk to you soon!  
-ardorDeviant [AD] ceased pestering launchingBereavement [LB] at 12:06 PM EST-

-insightfulNascency [IN] began pestering launchingBereavement [LB] at 12:05 PM EST-  
IN: Happiest of birthdays to you, Luke.  
LB: sincerest thanks ivan  
LB: i assume youre online because emmas bugging you too  
IN: Actually, it was Fran that messaged me. Seems we are to start now that Ally has logged on finally?  
LB: dude shes too tired to play if you ask me haha  
LB: she was tired enough to flirt with me again  
IN: As we’ve discussed, she flirts with everyone.  
IN: Do not take it personally.  
LB: oh no dude i dont dont worry  
LB: i remember back when she used to hit on emma  
LB: man talk about an awkward few months  
IN: Yes, I do remember.  
IN: Emma is messaging me again, I must go.  
IN: See you in the game, bard.  
LB: yeah you too man  
-insightfulNascency [IN] ceased pestering launchingBereavement [LB] at 12:07 PM EST-

Ivan was always saying weird shit. Emma did too. You just had a lot of weird friends, you decided. Finally, you opened the game, loaded it into your computer, and waited for Alec to tell you what to do.

 

**Luke: Be the tired girl. == > **

You are now the tired girl.

You are currently laying in your bed with your laptop, staring at your screen and trying to make sense of the series of confusing messages your neighbor sent you. You had been best friends with Emma since you both were young, but once sophomore year of High School had started, you drifted off into separate crowds and didn’t hang as much as you used to. But that all changed when you found out you were both messaging the same guy online.

Two years later, you’re all friends again (kind of) and about to play some spooky game, apparently.

-enforcedSecurity [ES] began pestering ardorDeviant [AD] at 9:03 AM PST-  
ES: Okay so now that you are on we can play.  
ES: Alec is going to enter first, as he is our leader. Then I shall connect to him and enter second. After me shall follow: Ivan, Fran, you, then Luke. Alec will connect as Luke's server player to complete the chain. Understand?  
AD: dude i'm so tired  
AD: just tell me what to do when i need to do it  
ES: You did not read the walk through I linked you to?  
AD: no no no i did  
AD: somehow i read through that terribly confusing and way too long novel of how to play the game  
AD: which it sounds kind of weird? like when they say immersive, just how fucking immersive are we talking?  
AD: but like i said, just tell me when i'm supposed to go  
AD: i need coffee  
ES: There will be no need for coffee once we enter the medium, trust me. :-)  
AD: whatever you say witch girl  
ES: How did you know I am the witch? Have you woken up finally?  
AD: what? no  
AD: you just made me watch harry potter whenever i spent the night  
AD: ....you still there?  
ES: Yes, dealing with some things. Ivan is very reluctant to follow my direction.  
AD: didn't you ~just~ say alec was our leader?  
ES: I will message you again once it is your time.  
-enforcedSecurity [ES] ceased pestering ardorDeviant [AD] at 9:09 AM PST-

You slide your laptop off your lap and sit up, squinting into the darkness of your room. Empty water bottles litter the floor, and absolutely cover the corner where your lacrosse stick is located. You had decided while reading the walk through that when you needed to equip your strife specibus--whatever the hell that is, you'll just wing it--you'd use that.

Your name is Ally Richards, and you turned 16 just over 6 months ago. You live in an apartment with your older brother who's never around except to steal your food and leave you CD's. As such, you have an extensive music collection, and are very prone to quoting lyrics often. Because of living in an old apartment building with just your brother for company, you tend to be very blunt about the things you say and a bit awkward in social situations. Not in the way that you don’t know what to say, but in the way of you say too much. You love bad jokes and worse puns, you love cheesy parody movies, and you love your best friend.

Well, all your best friends.

You love everyone.

You kind of have a problem. You blame it on alcohol and isolation.

Your laptop dings, and you reach forward to click on the chat bubble that just popped up. Thank Jegus, the person you always talk to to help sort your problems out.

-insightfulNascecy [IN] began pestering ardorDeviant [AD] at 9:14 AM PST-  
IN: I understand you are to be Fran's server player?  
AD: does that mean i'm going after her? then yeah, that's what emma told me  
IN: Do not take this personally, but that worries me.  
AD: dude i can handle this. trust me.  
AD: hangovers aren't shit once i've had my coffee  
IN: That is not what I mean.  
IN: Why does Emma want Fran to come in after myself? Is this a part of her strategy that she speaks of?  
AD: dude idk  
AD: who knows why she does anything  
IN: Good point.  
AD: thanks i'm full of them  
AD: hey quick question  
IN: Yes?  
AD: why are you so worried about fran?  
AD: do you still like her or something?  
IN: Ally, my feelings have not changed since we last discussed them two nights ago, and again a week before that, and another month before then. As a person in my present situation, I doubt they are very malleable, and most likely shall not change any time soon, nor vacillate in any other direction.  
AD: yeah yeah you're asexual or whatever i get it  
AD: but how do you like fran then? if you're like....  
AD: not into feelings  
AD: ?  
IN: Sexual attraction is very different from romantic attraction. While I do not have any sexual feelings whatsoever, I can and do care very deeply about her. However, it is unlikely that it will go any further than that.  
AD: huh  
AD: have you talked to her about it  
IN: No.  
AD: i probably wouldn't either  
AD: to put it in your words: don't take this personally, but i think she's kind of immature when it comes to some things?  
IN: Yes, I sense this as well. Is she younger than all of you?  
AD: dunno, never asked her  
AD: you’re close to her, you ask her  
AD: now…  
AD: changing the subject back to me  
IN: Naturally.  
AD: hardee har har  
AD: mister ivanna talk about fran all the time  
AD: this is kind of important  
AD: i think luke was flirting with me? like i know he always tells me he doesn't like me but he was doing his weird thing again  
IN: The 'thing' where he appears to be making romantic advances but pulls back as soon as you address it as such?  
AD: yeah yeah that  
IN: Is he participating in the black romance again?  
AD: even though i still don't know exactly what you mean when you say that, no i don't think it was the angry hate-lationship this time  
AD: i think it was just normal flirting  
IN: Ah, I see. He was just messaging me about this. I do not think you should take it into serious consideration.  
IN: Emma is messaging me, I must go.  
IN: See you in the game, heir.  
AD: wait you were talking to him about me  
-insightfulNascency [IN] ceased pestering ardorDeviant [AD] at 9:24 AM PST-  
AD: omg why are you so confusing  
-ardorDeviant [AD] ceased being pestered by insightfulNascency [IN] at 9:24 AM PST-

 

You groan again and finally get out of bed. As much as Ivan helped, he threw you for a complete loop as well. He was always around and willing to listen to you talk, always had been. Especially when you were younger. Man, things had been rough back then, back when you were young and stupid enough to think you could date your best friend. (Not that much has changed, honestly.)

You flashback to when you were 14, sitting on Emma’s bed. You two usually hung out at her house, since it was in fact a house and not an apartment. Not to mention her parents were never home, so it was almost like it was your own house. You two would make whatever food you wanted in the stove, bake whatever weird recipe Emma had found, or watch whatever movie fit her weird hobbies at the time. She was always smiling, always laughing, and you could only sit and grin back at her. It was times like now when you realized just how hard you were crushing.

At school, Emma was quiet. She hated talking in front of people, and hated being the center of attention even more. That fact alone made it hard for you two to be best friends, since you always were the center of attention. What could you say? You had a thing for putting on a show, for making people laugh.

In the beginning, it had been for everyone. Your classmates loved to laugh at your dramatic speeches, and even your teachers laughed at your jokes before telling you to settle down. Most of the time, you weren’t even acting. You felt emotions to their full extent, and falling for your best friend had been no exception.

It crept up on you quietly at first. You had known each other since you were six, becoming best friends as soon as you were seated next to each other in the first grade. From then on, you had been inseparable: the obnoxious kid with the loud freckles and even louder mouth, pulling along the quiet girl who looked more at her shoes than at other people. At her house was an entirely different story, however.

At her house, when it was just the two of you, she began to open up, slowly. You got under the cracks in her shyness, making her outright giggle and blush. The more she laughed, the more she talked, and you were more than happy to comply. After that, all of your loud stories and crazy jokes were to make her laugh. Every time you acted up in class, it was to see her blush and hide her smile. That one time you threatened to pee in a bully’s locker? Yeah, that was because she was right there and you knew the exact expression she’d make. She moved through hobbies and interests like a butterfly would flowers. She flitted from one to the next, ever inquisitive and always ecstatic when she was finished. You listened to her unravel her secrets, swept up in the secrecy that seemed to follow.This was something the two of you shared, something special, and you were not about to violate that trust.

-ardorDeviant [AD] began pestering insightfulNascency [IN] at 3:53 PM PST-  
AD: ivanna cry, it sucks.  
IN: You will have to be more specific.  
AD: emma  
AD: the emma problem  
IN: Ah, yes. The Emma Problem.  
IN: What specifically, this time?  
AD: she’s so great  
AD: like i’m sitting here right now just listening to her talk about harry potter for the hundredth time as if she hasn’t said anything about it before  
AD: like she’s described hermione and ron’s relationship probably forty times  
AD: enough that i could maybe recite the whole second book from memory  
AD: but i still love listening to her talk  
AD: and i just wanna smush her face and hug her  
AD: THAT’S what sucks specifically  
IN: Have you considered confessing your feelings for her?

You look up at Emma, proudly holding a homemade wand and waving it in the air. Her dark eyes were alight with excitement, and your stomach did a somersault just looking at her.

AD: i don’t know how she’d react  
AD: it’s scary, you know?  
IN: What is the worst that could happen?  
AD: um  
AD: she could say NO  
AD: she could say FUCK OFF I’M STRAIGHT  
AD: she could kick me out of her house and i’d never see her again  
AD: that’s the worst that could happen!!!!  
IN: But if she does any of those options, was it even worth liking her in the first place?  
AD: yes!!!  
AD: well  
AD: no, i guess. not really.  
AD: but still  
AD: things are good now, why should i screw them up?  
IN: Why should you continue to put yourself through this self-torture? It is not fair to you.  
AD: ughhhh  
AD: i guess you’re right  
AD: again, unfortunately  
AD: thanks ivan  
IN: You are most welcome.  
IN: Good luck.  
AD: thanks, i’ll need it.  
-ardorDeviant [AD] ceased pestering insightfulNascency [IN] at 3:57 PM PST-

You look up again, and she’s turning around, now pretending to cast a spell on you.

“Stupefy!” She shouts, immediately laughing as you pretend to throw your phone and fall over onto her bed. You grin up at the ceiling, heart pounding in your chest as her giggles ring in your ears. She was so happy, so full of light in this moment, that you couldn’t help it. You don’t know how you managed to say it without faltering. Your brain obviously had no say in it.

“What was that, a love spell?” You smirk over at her, and she quiets for a second, lowering her wand as you finish, “Because it seems I’ve just fallen for you.”

Immediately, you regret it. That was quite possibly the stupidest thing you could have said, hands down. She was looking at you as if she couldn’t quite figure out whether to take you seriously or not.

“Ha, no.” She tries, voice just this side of wary. “It was to disarm you.”

You shrug, leaning up on your elbow. Your face was burning, bright red in her mirror reflecting back at you. “Well, goal accomplished.”

She was silent again, and with a sinking feeling in your gut, you could see the guards going back up again, see her retracting back into herself. You wanted to hit yourself. You never should have listened to Ivan, this was terrible. 

“Um.” She asked quietly, “Were you serious? Just then?”

14 year olds are so stupid. 14 year olds should never make decisions on their own. 14 year olds were the absolute worst, stupidest people--

“Yeah.” You sat up straighter, throat tight as you forced yourself to be honest. Because if anything, you owed her that much. “I was serious. I, uh, really like you, Emma. As more than a friend.”

The look on her face is enough to shake you out of your memory, forcing yourself back to the present and to the Emma who stood in stark contrast to the one you used to know. She began growing more distant, you began drinking the leftover alcohol in your cabinets to fill the space. She retreated to friends online, you flirted drunkenly with any person you messaged in a chatroom. She cropped her hair in a neat and professional style, you dyed yours bright blue, then purple, then red. She gave you a cold stare when she found out you were messaging Luke, and you asked for his snapchat as soon as she left your house. You told her about the scary dreams you were having, when you thought you two had finally become friends again, and she gave you a look similar to the one she gave you when you confessed to being in love with her. It wasn’t the first time she would look at you as if what you were saying was insignificant, nothing more important than a toddler speaking, and it certainly wasn’t the last. It had only increased from there, as had her anger towards you. Towards everyone, really. And you blamed yourself for a long time about that.

Emma just messaged you to ask you to load the game and connect. What will you do?

**Ally: Be the boy with green words. == > **

You are now the boy with green words, except two months in the past, on your own 17th birthday. Your hair reaches just below your ears and you have green eyes that are too grey and you're just a little too lanky for Emma's liking.

 _Your_ liking. You think you're too lanky, not Emma. You are so totally in charge of your own life--but listening to Emma doesn't hurt, right? You just really like to make her happy. You decide that you're totally in control of your own destiny and your name is Alec Roberts.

Your room is covered in shelves of books, bookmarks and other items used to hold your place sticking out at all angles. You love reading the completed works and have read them all cover to finish. Your favorite book is one called _Complacency of the Learned_ , and it was written by your favorite author. Unfortunately, she died well before you were born, so you had no real way of contacting her, really. Bummer. You'd love to sit and ask her how she meant for it to be read, what the real meaning behind it was.

Under a pile of books, your laptop dings, and you shove the books aside so you can open it to see which of your friends is pestering you now.

-enforcedSecurity [ES] began pestering analyzingRicochet [AR] at 10:14 AM PST-  
ES: Do you think you could ship me your copy of 'Dreams for Profit' for the weekend?  
ES: I'd like to read it before Luke's birthday so that I can interpret my dreams before the medium is upon us.

You smile to yourself, seeing the message from Emma. While it seems like she's forgotten your birthday, and she's angrier than she usually is, it still makes your stomach clench up a bit.

AR: yeah, sure i could!!  
AR: do you need it soon?  
AR: i could have it in the mail by tonight if you need it!  
ES: Yes, sooner would be better than later.  
ES: Luke's birthday is one of the most important days of our lives, Alec.  
AR: i mean, he's a pretty sick dude, yeah.  
AR: but like...  
ES: Yes?  
AR: wouldn't someone else's be kind of important too?  
ES: Whose?  
ES: Ally's 16th birthday has already passed, and that was the turning point for us. I doubt anyone else's could render such importance on our quest.  
AR: oh  
AR: nevermind  
ES: As to your question about dreams, I have already been awakened on Prospit. I have been searching and learning while the rest of you lay asleep in your beds.  
ES: Also, Ally has been referencing some troubling things in her own dreams lately.  
AR: oh!  
AR: i'll wake up if you need me to!!  
ES: Alec, I regret to inform you that you won't awaken until much later. Our paths shall not cross in my dreams.  
AR: aw bummer :(  
AR: i was thinking maybe we could have a dream party or something  
AR: and talk about these dream books like, in person  
AR: would it be in person? like would we even remember it after we wake up?? i never remember my dreams really!!  
ES: These are not normal dreams.  
AR: oh  
AR: so no book party then...?  
ES: No, no book party.  
AR: double negative!!! caught ya!  
AR: there will be a book party!  
AR: >:)  
ES: There will not be a book party.  
AR: oh.  
ES: Ship it as soon as you can. I know it will take long to reach me from that strange island you live on.  
AR: it's not really an island, really  
AR: i'm pretty close to the mainland  
ES: Regardless, it needs to be here before Luke's birthday.  
AR: speaking of birthdays......  
ES: What about them?  
AR: aren't you forgetting something?  
AR: or maybe someone's???  
ES: Oh, yes. Ally did mention she was putting something together for someone recently.  
AR: ally's sending me a present??  
ES: It was for you?  
ES: Well, then happy birthday, Alec.  
AR: thanks emma!!  
ES: You're welcome.  
ES: Don't forget the book in all of your celebrations.  
AR: oh there won't be a lot of celebrating  
AR: grandpa's gone for the weekend, so  
AR: just me and my books!!  
ES: Exciting.  
ES: Have a nice day.  
-enforcedSecurity [ES] ceased pestering analyzingRicochet [AR] at 10:22 AM PST-

You sit back from your computer, grinning like an idiot. How nice of her to wish you a nice day! She was so great.

Just like that, your computer's dinging again, two different people this time! You smile again, leaning one elbow on a book while you read the messages from more of your online friends.

-finiteJacker [FJ] began pestering analyzingRicochet [AR] at 10:31 AM PST-  
FJ: hey alec! happy birthday big man!  
FJ: i'm on lunch break from school and i figured you'd be up by now, sooooooo  
FJ: happy birthday!!!  
AR: thanks so much fran!!!  
AR: that's really sweet of you to think of me at school!!  
FJ: well i wouldn't just forget a friend's birthday!  
AR: :) :)  
FJ: so did you get any cool presents yet? or is it too early for that in the tropical paradise?  
AR: ha ha i wouldn't call it a paradise  
AR: but yeah it's a bit too early  
AR: emma said ally's sending me a present though!!  
FJ: that's so cool! i would have but i can't afford it :(  
AR: that's okay!!  
AR: my grandpa's out of town anyways, so i was just expecting to read some books!!  
FJ: your grandpa's out of town on your birthday?  
AR: yeah, he had some things to do.  
AR: so i get the house all to myself!!  
FJ: isn't it lonely?  
AR: well, a bit, yeah  
AR: but reading helps :)  
FJ: i'm sorry but lunch is over, i gotta get back to doing class :(  
FJ: have fun reading!! i'll message you again when i get home so you aren't too lonely there :D  
AR: okay!!  
AR: have fun at school!!  
-finiteJacker [FJ] ceased pestering analyzingRicochet [AR] at 10:33 AM PST-

 

-launchingbereavement [LB] began pestering analyzingRicochet [AR] at 10:31 AM PST-  
LB: hey happy birthday dude  
LB: wow cool no response  
LB: oh i get it  
LB: youre probably out on some big birthday adventure in your weird jungle  
AR: hey!!!  
AR: thanks luke!!  
AR: and sorry, i was talking to fran!  
LB: its cool its cool  
AR: also ha ha to the birthday adventures  
LB: i was referring to reading  
LB: maybe reading in a tree is an adventure for you idk  
AR: oh what a good idea!!  
AR: maybe i will do that!!  
LB: whatever floats your boat man  
AR: shouldn't you be at school right now?  
LB: nah i skipped today  
LB: dad wasn’t home again  
LB: i think ally and i are gonna stream a movie later  
LB: whenever she gets up  
LB: arent you two in the same time zone  
AR: we are!!  
AR: she and emma are on the mainland, but it would only be a two hour drive from me!!  
LB: what is it there  
AR: um,  
AR: pacific time i think?  
LB: no what time is it  
AR: oh!!  
AR: it's 10:35!!  
LB: yeah she wont be up for a while  
LB: im gonna nap  
LB: later man happy birthday  
AR: thanks again luke!!  
-launchingBereavement [LB] ceased pestering analyzingRicochet [AR]

Man, Luke was so cool. You two often talked about baseball and the players on different teams. He was obviously the better player, you weren't much good at anything. He was a lot better at drawing, as well. But it was still fun to talk to him about it.

You turn back to your books, thinking about reading in a tree like he said. Then you remember Ally's package! It was still early, but the mail usually dropped in early anyways. Sometimes a week early, which you never understood. Emma usually said that meant 'the wheels were in motion', but you never really asked further on the subject. Not like she'd tell you anyways. Man, what a mysterious woman.

You run down the stairs and out of your house, brightening up as you see the little red thingy on the mailbox sticking up. What was that thing called, anyways?

Regardless, you pull the package out and tear it open on your driveway, almost trembling with excitement. Someone cared enough to send you a birthday present!

On top was a note from Ally, which you read first. She was just so thoughtful.

What's good, my brother from another mother!! I'll probably still be asleep when you open this, but I wanted to wish you a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAN!!! I hope you read tons of books and maybe go plant a flower or something, I don't know what you do on that island. Maybe I could come visit sometime! You're pretty close to me and Emma, so how cool would that be? A fun roadtrip or something now that I'm sixteen and have my license. *Imagine me putting on my sunglasses here* Bro wouldn’t like that probably, he’s always worried about something. Anyways, hope you like your present, and Emma says to tell you 'We'll see you sooner than you think.' I don't know what she means. Maybe she likes my roadtrip idea!! Hope you love your presents. (I found them sitting around my apartment, who knew bro was a nerd?)  
Tons of birthday hugs,  
Ally

You almost tear up. Ally was so, so thoughtful. And Emma gave you a message! She was thinking about you!

You shove the note in your pocket and turn to the rest of the package, shouting out loud when you see it's contents. Inside are two big books--how cool is this???--by your favorite author! You've obviously read them, but these are original editions! It's been said (online of course, you don't talk to real people) that the original printings have some sort of magic in the ink if you look hard enough. Maybe you'll look it up later.

What's this? There's something poking out from underneath the second book. It looks like a game of some sort. You lift it out of the box, looking at the weird circle design and reading the title.

Ally's sent you some game called Sburb.

**Alec: Be the nice pink girl. == > **

You are now Fran, except back in the future (present?). You have just finished loading your copy of the game and you're watching Ivan run around on your screen as he tries to figure out what's going on with this game and the items you’ve recently deployed into his house. Er, hive.

Just as he told you about a week ago, he is, in fact, an alien. Although, this is the first time you had seen it.

FJ: oh man ivan, your horns are so cool looking!! i need to find me some of those!!  
IN: We shall work on it as soon as I am done chasing around this kernelsprite.

Your name is Francine Johnson, and you love to learn. Literally about anything. That's why you're currently attending an online college for computer engineering taught by none other than the famous Dr. Roxanne Lalonde. That's also why you listened to Ivan ramble on about his home planet for three hours, you listen when Alec drones on and on about his weird books, you listen to Luke talking about his weird animes and drawings, and you listen to every single drunken story Ally has told. If you were honest, Ally's drunk stories were your favorites. You even printed one of them out and kept it on your bedside table so you could read it at night.

You pick it up now, smiling even before you read the first sentence. She was at one of her drunkest moments, but you didn't mind. It was her birthday anyways, so it wasn't like you could blame her. Even if some of the words were hard to decipher, you knew she meant every one of them, and that made it all the more interesting.

-ardorDeviant [AD] began pestering finiteJacker [FJ] at 10:34 PM CT-  
AD: fraaaaaaaaaanmnn  
AD: frannnnnie poooooo  
FJ: hehe hey ally!  
AD: omg u are too cute  
AD: i wanna hug ya  
AD: whu are you so far away  
FJ: because i'm your internet friend, silly!  
FJ: if i lived too close, i'd be your real life friend, like emma!  
AD: pshh  
AD: PSHHHHH  
AD: PDDSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHGHH  
AD: some friedn she is  
AD: funkign left me all by meself on ym birthday  
FJ: aw, why did she do that?  
AD: fuck if i know  
AD: all i know is im at an apartment alone and watching cheesy movies and im bored  
AD: also very drunk  
AD: sorey  
FJ: hehe it's okay!  
AD: ur too nice to meeeee  
AD: i bet youd like these movies  
AD: theyre super funny and nice like tou  
AD: you***  
AD: we should do like an onlyine movie watcing shesh sometime  
AD: luke and i do that a lot  
AD: but he amkes fun of them the whole time  
AD: wy would he watch them if all he does if make fun of them  
FJ: i don't know :)  
FJ: maybe he just likes watching them with you!  
AD: omfg i doubt it  
AD: he still thinks i have the hots for alec  
AD: which was never true in hte firs place  
AD: but accoridng to ivanna knwo it all it's gone pale  
AD: not to mention he kind of feels like a brot=her???  
AD: whatever the fuck that means  
AD: HOLY SHIT LOOK  
AD: i had a sntenence with no typos!!!!!!  
FJ: hehe congratulations!  
AD: thanks ghirl  
AD: girl****  
FJ: anytime!!  
AD: idk what ivanna sleep is talkign about but luke deffo isnt a pale thingy  
AD: i thinks the term is flush or someting like a toilet  
AD: bevcause its SHIT  
AD: like i was dreaming the othere night and i was in smoe shiny place and lukey was theyre  
AD: but he wouldtn wake up???  
AD: adn i was yelling and screanimg but he wouldnt lookmat me ): ): ):  
FJ: why were you in a shiny place?  
AD: idk it felt super real too  
AD: like i was awake instead of sleeping? but i dindt know i was a wake?  
FJ: that kind of sounds like emma's dreams!  
AD: dude FUCK emma  
FJ: aw :(  
AD: nno i mean liek  
AD: well ya no i mean it  
AD: we usede to be so fucign close and nwo she barely talks to me becuasde she's plotting all the time and dreaming and she's so mean now??  
AD: i can hardly call her a friend  
AD: like we grew up together and we were the best of friends but ever since that time i told her i lieked her she got weird and wouldnt talk to me but when i apologized and said i got over it she still stopped talking to me and now shell onyl talk to me if its about my dreams  
AD: she thikns my dreams are important but not me  
AD: like she loves to hear about how i can fly and my cool purple pajamas and the cool people i meet and hang out with when im sleeping and she thinks tis so important but if i try and change the subject she leaves  
AD: thats what happened tonight  
AD: i was tlaking about how i couldnt get dream luke to wake up and how i was dreaming i was talking to some weird grey shouty dude but when i trieed to like talk about what luke got me for my birthday she stopped lsitening and went home  
AD: its MY birthday not YOURS  
AD: listen to ME please  
AD: but whatevs  
AD: did a few shoots and im not even mad anymore  
FJ: wow, that's a lot.  
AD: sorry i rambmle when i drink )l:  
FJ: that's okay! i like it when you ramble :) you tell really cool stories!  
AD: aw frannie you so nice  
AD: imma tell you a story then about the last dream i had  
FJ: okay!  
AD: like i said, i coudlnt get luke to wake up  
AD: so i was wonering around and my phone gkept ringintg so i finally picked it up and there was some dude shouting on the other lie  
AD: and he was all like 'youre not eally awake and its gonna scrwe eveyrthing up!!!!'  
AD: and so i was like wtf are you talking about  
AD: and he kept tryuing to tell me some troll was comign and i needed to get ready to fight her btu it was like he was really far away and i coudlnt really hear hom  
AD: and then i looked up and there were monsters int he sky and a big red ship and i heard an explosion really far away  
AD: and he kept yelling and yelling at me and i felt like luke  
AD: i felt like he was tryiing to get me to wake up, but i couldnt  
AD: and then the monsters said something and then i was awake in my bed  
AD: but it felt like the wrong kind of awake, you know?  
AD: i felt like i was supposed to be doing somehting else, that i needed to go and help someone, and i felt like no matter how soon i left i'll always be too late to really help him  
AD: it's such a sad, scary feeling  
AD: not being able to save someone  
AD: especially someone it feels like you care about so much  
AD: anyways  
AD: that's the reaons i began drinking at 10 am on a wednesdya  
FJ: wow ally  
FJ: these dreams seem super important  
FJ: have you tried asking alec to interpret them with his dream book?  
AD: no but i think emma's gonna ask fro it soon  
AD: sees really getting into the dreamy thing  
AD: anyways lemme tell you about ths move  
AD: my secret lover dave the actro is in it so thats why i lvoe it  
FJ: hehe i never would have guessed :)

And that's where you stopped it, because you figured you didn't need to reread the million reasons Ally loves that actor. 

Ivan's pestering you again. You look on the screen, delighted. It seems like he's really getting stuff done! Not only that, but Ally's connecting to you right now as well! From the sounds upstairs in your house, she must be deploying the same things you did for Ivan.

IN: It appears I have a countdown of some sort.  
IN: Ally was messaging me in many capital letters about a countdown involving her and Alec, but I think she is now distracted and trying to help you.  
FJ: well you need to do something about the countdown!  
FJ: let me message her!

FJ: hey ally!  
FJ: ivan said we need to be doing something about this countdown that's happening?  
FJ: what is it counting down to?  
FJ: ally, you there?  
AD: HERE FUCKING READ IT  
AD: http://mspaintadventures.wikia.com/wiki/Rose%27s_walkthrough  
AD: I GOT YOUR EQUIPMENT ALL READY FOR YOU TO MAKE WHATEVER YOU NEED UPSTAIRS YOU'RE ALL SET  
AD: APARTMETNS IS GONNA EXPLODE GOTTA GO  
FJ: oh no that doesn't sound good!  
FJ: ally you okay??  
-ardorDeviant [AD] has become idle at 12:04 PM CT-

 

FJ: okay well ally stopped replying  
FJ: but i'm reading the walkthrough and this is what you need to do  
FJ: just a few steps, and then i've got to go do it too!  
FJ: ready?  
IN: Always.

 

**Fran: Be the other guy. == > **

You begin to be the other guy again, Luke, although twenty minutes into the past, where things have gotten a bit more chaotic as you began playing the game.

As soon as all of you connected with your respective clients and servers, you could tell something was off. Emma seemed to be directing more than Alec, yet what she was doing was counter-productive. Ally tried to talk to her about the walk through, but she was steadily ignored. Nothing was built out of the available instruments, no weapons were made to prepare for the monsters Ally was sure were coming, and no kernelsprites were prototyped. Alec's house was smashed in a meteor, leaving Ally and you to freak out over it. 

LB: ally  
LB: ally you saw that right  
AD: WHERE THE FUCK IS ALEC  
AD: WHAT THE HELL  
LB: dude emma did NOT say anything about this  
LB: are all of our houses going to blow up???  
LB: does this game kill everyone?????  
AD: hold on i saw something in the walk through about it  
AD: although every time i bring it up, emma tells me to ignore it  
AD: what was even the point of me reading it if she just keeps ignoring my advice on how to play?  
LB: WHAT DID IT SAY DAMMIT  
AD: whoa chill  
AD: okay so that countdown on the big thingy the glowy ball came from  
LB: the cruxtrader that the kernelsprite came out of yes  
AD: okay well the big thingy has your countdown until the meteor hits  
AD: and you need to make a totem with the carver thingy in order to 'escape your impending doom'  
AD: whatever the hell that means  
LB: oh god i have like two minutes  
LB: wait what do we do with the glowy ball  
LB: the kernelsprite dammit  
LB: ally???  
AD: sorry sorry emma's being nuts  
AD: she says we can't do anything with them even though the walk through says they need to be prototyped??  
AD: FUCK i have thirty seconds  
AD: i gotta warn fran  
LB: ALLY WAIT  
LB: how do i make a totem?? alec wont answer  
LB: ALLY  
LB: FUCK YOUR APARTMENT BLEW UP  
LB: ALLY PLEASE TELL ME YOURE OKAY

Ally does not respond. All you can see on the screen where she was standing moments before is a gaping, smoking hole in the ground where her apartment building used to be. In fear, you glance at your own countdown, and rush to begin making the totem, since Alec seems to be no help whatsoever anymore.

Ten seconds before your countdown ends and the giant meteor you can see hits you, your Alchemiter produces a target and some darts. Running out of ideas, you grab the darts and run forward, shoving them in the bullseye just before the countdown ends.

But soon, each player followed, and it was only once you reached the void that you understood they hadn't died.

And this is where his tale began.

They had entered the medium.

Or, more realistically, you think, you all entered hell. Because from this moment on, you were no longer six kids playing a computer game. You were warriors and heroes and villains and casualties set out to try and save the universe from itself.

Also there was a lot of fire.0

The story suddenly switches to a third person narrative, leaving you as a character to be instead someone read about, and removing the reader from the story. After all, every multi-universal tale needs an omnipotent reader.

"Fire is literally everywhere, oh my god." Ally said quickly, hoping her phone clenched tightly in her hand was transcribing everything she was saying. Thank Jegus she had downloaded Pesterchum onto her phone. "Everything is literally on fire, shit."

Her phone dinged, signaling that Luke had messaged her back. They had all successfully entered the medium, according to Fran, who had also apparently read the walkthrough. Not only that, but it seemed like Fran was kicking butt at this game, if the little window on Ally’s screen where she was running around was any clue.

LB: yeah some weird title popped up on your screen  
LB: you're in the Land of Flames and Malachite  
LB: what's malachite  
AD: i think it's a rock probably  
LB: probably  
LB: either way, glad everyone's alive and not dead like we thought  
AD: haha true that

Ally turned to walk down the path, clutching her lacrosse stick tightly in her hand. From what she had read, there should be monsters coming any time now to attack her. But strangely enough, the land literally seemed to have nothing in it but fire.

Off to her right, she watched as her kernelsprite zoomed away over the fire. 

AD: hey fran  
AD: why did my glowy ball thing leave  
AD: wasn't it supposed to hang around to be protoyped  
FJ: that's what the walk through said!  
FJ: maybe since we entered the medium now, we don't need them!  
FJ: I am a bit worried though, Ivan hasn't responded in a while. :(  
FJ: do you think he made it in okay?  
AD: yeah i asked alec and he said emma told him everyone made it  
AD: hold on emma's messaging me again

 

ES: Alright, do you see your gate?  
AD: the big circle thingy in the sky?  
ES: Yes, the big circle thingy in the sky.  
AD: haha yeah  
ES: You need to ascend through to the furthest gate as soon as possible.  
ES: I've sent everyone a code to create a jetpack that should enable all of us to rendezvous here sooner.  
AD: where's here  
AD: also how come we can make jetpacks but not cool weapons  
AD: also also i can't believe you actually just typed rendezvous in order to sound cool  
ES: My planet. Alec has already made it. You and Luke will need to go through quite a bit more gates to get here, however.  
AD: omg so that ~was~ him that i saw flying  
AD: lol but whatever you say  
AD: i thought the walkthrough said we weren't supposed to meet up until we all hit the dream walker land? the big gold city?  
ES: Prospit, yes. We will go there together.  
AD: wait are we cheating  
ES: In a way, yes.  
AD: dude this game seems pretty serious  
AD: idk if we should be fucking with the rules like this  
ES: I will see you all soon. Get a move on.  
-enforcedSecurity[ES] ceased pestering ardorDeviant  [AD] at 10:16 AM PST-

Ally rolled her eyes, sending Fran a quick message before turning to head back to her apartment--or what was left of it. Turns out her apartment was quite literally ripped out of place and landed on this planet...where ever that was.

Since she had the walk through to go off of, it was pretty easy to make the jetpack, and then alchemize it with her bed sheets to make a cooler, bluer jetpack. Everyone would be so jealous. Luke seemed to have a bit more trouble with his, however.

LB: no wait where does the card go  
AD: you put it in the rectangle hole  
LB: what fucking rectangle hole  
AD: can a hole be rectangular? like, really? cuz doesn't calling it a hole imply it's round?  
LB: WHAT FUCKING HOLE

 

Although she had to admit, she wasn't the most helpful guide. But eventually, he made it to Ally's planet through his gate, and the two flew together. But not before they had their first in-person awkward encounter.

"Dude, I know we snapchat, like, every other day, but this is not how I pictured you." Luke said, giving Ally a very obvious once over.

"Right back atcha, _dude_.” Ally snorted, looking at his pajama pants, which were covered in cartoons. "Jegus, couldn't change before the world ended?"

Luke frowned, trying to focus on something other than Ally's eyes. “Why do you even say Jegus, anyways?” Snapchat really hadn't done her justice, he thought. Her hair was bright red since she had dyed it a month ago, making her freckles stand out on her cheeks. He shook his head, driving away the thoughts. They had just landed in some weird world, now was _so_ not the time.

“I dunno.” Ally shrugged. “I used to dream about this dude that said it all the time, and I thought it was funny. Guess it became a habit once I said it enough.”

“That’s so weird.” Luke rolled his eyes, and Ally sighed, not in the mood to get into it right now with him. Besides, the fire was getting kind of close to them.

Ally finally made the decision to go, dragging her eyes away from Luke. Dark hair, dark eyes, tan, tall....he even looked mysterious and cool. If she thought talking to him over a computer was hard, this was about to be a nightmare. They took off into the sky, their jetpacks carrying them up and through the gates. 

"Everyone else's lands are so chill." Ally whined, looking down at the huge forest they were now flying over. "Why did mine have so much fire?"

"Because all gingers are from hell, didn't you hear?" He called back, studiously ignoring the glare she threw his way. They continued on, finally coming to land when they spotted Emma's house in the middle of a field.

"See, this is what I'm talking about." Ally gestured, pointing around them. "I had fire. Emma gets fucking flowers and sunshine."

"Oh, gosh, yours is blue!"

Luke and Ally turned at the voice, shooting a glance to each other. A young girl was running over to them, smile lighting up her face. Her bright pink shirt gave it away, however, and Ally smiled as she figured it out.

"You must be Fran!" Ally cheered, throwing her arms out on either side. "I knew you sounded like a little sister. What are you, 14? Come here, you." Fran laughed and gave her a hug, then turned to smile at Luke.

"Nice to meet you guys finally! I just got here. Ivan, Alec and Emma are inside. Wait till you meet Ivan." Her eyes lit up, making Luke laugh.

"This is why internet meet ups shouldn't happen."

But, once they entered the door, they understood her grin.

"What the fuck--"

"Luke!" Ally gasped, slapping his shoulder. "Don't be fucking rude!"

"No, it is okay." The person standing there gave a small smile, making everyone turn to look at him. So this dude--this grey, horned dude--must be Ivan. His voice had a strange lilt to it, no doubt an accent from whatever planet he was from. His shirt held a strange grey symbol on it of three circles, all connected by a straight line that ran vertically down his chest. His horns stood tall on his head, but Luke could tell with even how tall he was, he was young.

"Were you like, wearing a costume when you crossed over?" Ally asked, and Luke rolled his eyes. "Who's being the rude one now?"

"No, he's a troll!" Fran smiled. "He comes from a different planet and everything, he told me all about it a week ago." Ivan gave her a small smile, nodding.

"So..." Luke pointed at each person in turn, "Let me get all this straight. Ally, you and Emma were neighbors in real life. Alec, you look exactly like I pictured you would--"

"Is that a good thing?"

"--Fran is like, 14, and Ivan's a troll alien?"

Emma glanced around at everyone, bored, then nodded. "Yes, that appears to sum it up. Do we need to write it down for you?"

"Wow, starting with the sass already." He smirked, and Ally turned to look at Emma with a slight roll of her eyes. 

"So, what happens now? According to the walk through, we should be like, battling monsters or something." She frowned, continuing. "But I haven't seen any, anywhere."

"Now we wait." Emma answered decisively, giving Alec a look.

He nodded quickly and stepped forward, looking to everyone. "Yeah, no, our session is different. Apparently, since we come from a weird timeline, our session was altered to tailor to our own personal journeys. The reason we don't have monsters is because we were brought here for a reason other than to start fighting right away."

Emma nodded, and Luke gave her a weird look. "So...what would that reason be?"

"There's puzzles that allow us further insight to the game and special features that can give us an advantage." She told him, narrowing her eyes. "That's what we're going to do."

Ally watched her carefully, noting how angry she seemed. All day she had been wondering why Emma wouldn’t answer any of her questions. She kept brushing Ally off as if she was insignificant, like she didn’t mean anything to the bigger scheme. This girl was much different than the one she grew up with. Where was the curiosity, the imagination? It was all dead, trapped in this angry shell of who she used to be.

There were no emotions behind anything, only anger and disgust. For the first time in her life, Ally felt like she actually hated something.

\- - - - -

"We'll learn to fight soon, Luke." Emma sighed, flipping through the magazine on Luke's bed. Well, it wasn't a bed. It was the pull out couch in the basement of Emma's house. Still. It was his, and she wouldn't stop bugging him. So, naturally, he had to bug her in return until she would leave.

"And when is soon?" He groaned, spinning in the wheely chair. "We've done nothing but puzzles for a month now, and I'm sick of it."

She looked up to him, catching him in an even glare. "Soon."

He groaned loudly again, shouting, "Ugh, stay out of my room if you're just going to be cryptic!”

"This is my house, if you're forgetting." Emma flipped another page, her tone this side of amused. "Don't make me invite Alec down here." Luke only groaned in response and closed his eyes, imagining himself away to his happy place.

Which is where Ally was, ironically. She had taken to flying between the different planets, solving the further away puzzles for days at a time. He totally got why: Emma and Alec were almost overbearing with how much they acted like they knew better. Well, Emma knew. Alec just agreed with her. It didn't help that Fran and Ivan were often off in their own little world doing who knows what. Luke shivered mentally thinking about it.

It had taken a couple days to get used to the fact that he had been chatting online with a 14 year old girl, especially now that he had turned 17. Fran was easy enough to get used to, though. She had a really easy going personality and always listened with interest to whatever he talked about. It was like she loved to know almost everything about anything, and that was probably why she got along with Ivan so well.

Well, Ivanos, as they had come to learn, was his real name. (Ally still called him Ivan, still made the terrible puns with is name.) It had taken nearly a week to stop staring every time he came into a room. His skin was harder, a rougher grey type thing, and he had two horns on his head. Honest to God horns. Don't even get him started on his yellow eyes.

But like Fran, Ivan was easy to get along with. He was always concerned when Fran was involved with the missions that Alec pretended he was in charge of, and he didn't use contractions very often, but he was nice and seemed to genuinely want the best for everyone.

Emma still talked nonstop about how once they had the puzzles done, they could all go to Prospit together. However, she was only concerned about the puzzles on her planet, and every time Ally had brought it up, Emma had yelled at her to mind her own business.

So, naturally, that's why Ally was doing the ones on the other planets first, leaving Luke to take the heat. Thanks. _Not._ She did tell him about the other planets though, which was pretty cool.

AD: ivan's planet is probably my favorite so far  
AD: i’m totally imagining paradise city by guns n roses blasting as i jetpack all over this place  
AD: like there's just hundreds of trees everywhere  
AD: and there's these weird monkey creatures that just kind of chirp at me, but they've been helping me with the puzzles!  
AD: i adopted one as my own  
AD: his name is DAVE  
LB: did you seriously name him after that shitty movie star  
AD: *gasps*  
AD: dave is my IDOL  
AD: he makes THE cheesiest parody movies EVER and i LOVE HIM  
LB: yeah yeah we get it you love everyone  
LB: when are you coming back  
AD: dunno honestly  
AD: i've got a few more days before my food runs out and i like, HAVE to come back to the “Land of Perdition and Chimera” or whatever  
AD: especially because these monkeys keep bringing me fruit  
AD: dave is so sweet  
AD: and i've got like two more puzzles to finish on ivan's planet, so that just leaves yours mine and alec's to do  
LB: so when are you coming back  
AD: five days, probably. maybe six.  
AD: why, miss me? :****  
LB: wtf is that face  
AD: kisses  
AD: duh  
LB: ew gross  
AD: yeah so many cooties my b  
LB: and no its just terrible when the only people i can talk to are the crazy egomaniac, her minion and the lovebirds  
AD: aww well power through  
AD: i'll be back soon lukey poo

 

So, really, he wasn't that alone. He did have Ally to talk to. She loved to talk about her cool quests. Apparently she was keeping up with Fran as well, who had figured out tons of stuff about the game with Ivan's help.

Fran and Ivan could usually be found upstairs in one of their rooms, pouring over their notes and the walkthrough. They had nearly two notebooks full of theories and diagrams and explanations, but Emma was not allowed to know. In fact, Luke thought Emma had no idea. It’s not like she went anywhere near them anyways. 

“What even is this supposed to be?” Luke asked, picking up a loose piece of paper with a drawing on it. It held some sort of diagram, almost like a flow chart with lots and lots of circles.

Fran glanced up, then smiled. “Oh! That’s our gate theory!”

“Your what?” Luke looked down at her, and Fran stood up from where she was on the floor to come over to him.

“Our gate theory. Haven’t you ever wondered why all our planets led to each other?” She looked up at him, smirking when he shook his head. “Initially, you’re supposed to enter just the medium once you enter the game. Once you go through your first gate, that’s when you enter your planet. After that, I think it’s supposed to take you to your house. So…” She drew it out, excitement lighting up her face. “How come all of our gates just lead to each other?”

Luke stared at her, “Am I supposed to be able to answer that?”

“Of course not.” Ivan laughed, finally looking up from where he was highlighting pieces of the walk through. “It is still a working theory. We believe the game must be changing for the players.”

Luke frowned again. “The game can change? I thought it was just kind of, like, a video game. Like, you play it and try to win.”

“That’d make sense if this was a normal game.” Fran smiled. “But so many things have been different in our session than what was said in the walk through. The thing is, all of the changes make sense because of what we’ve been doing.” She pointed to the gates again. “Emma wants us to be here on our planet, but the gates allow Ally to be pretty much everywhere else. We should be fighting monsters, but there’s nothing on this planet except us, because we aren’t equipped to fight monsters.”

“I thought there was nothing here because we didn’t prototype the kernelsprites?” Luke asked. “Ally told me that’s why.”

“Prototyping the kernelsprites affects the battleground for the final match.” Fran explained. “And some of the other creatures, yes. But even if we didn’t prototype, there should still be something here, shouldn’t there?”

“Ally has told us that there are other creatures on the other planets.” Ivan was saying, frowning at a different piece of paper now. “But why are there no creatures here? Not to mention Emma referred to the game as being tailored to our quests. That implies someone other than the game itself was making the changes. So who would that be?”

Luke was silent, and Fran only smiled at him before moving to sit down next to Ivan again. He watched them for a moment, discussing different possibilities quietly with each other. With a final shake of his head, he turned and left the room, heading downstairs to the kitchen.

“Hey, Luke!”

Luke glanced up, then grimaced. “Oh, hey, Alec. Look, I’ve got something I need to--”

“It won’t take long.” Alec interrupted, the look on his face saying he knew Luke was going to brush him off. He hesitated, then nodded, and Alec mirrored the motion enthusiastically.

“Um, I was wondering, has Emma said anything to you about Ally?”

Luke gave him a look. “What do you mean?”

“Well, uh.” He rubbed the back of his neck, green eyes looking down to the floor. “She’s been off lately. And I think it has to do with Ally.”

Luke laughed, “Dude, Emma’s been off for almost a year now. She’s been off ever since Ally professed her undying love for her.”

Alec’s head snapped up, worried, “Emma and Ally are in love? Wait, is it that weird quadrant thing Ivan was talking about? Like, the black thing? Kings-menis? Is it--”

“What? No, dude.” Luke rolled his eyes, stopping the babbling. “Ally had a crush on her for like, two months. She told Emma and Emma got weird and they stopped talking for a bit. As far as I know, they got over it when Ally started liking some other girl at school. But it was right about then that Emma started getting weird, you know?”

Alec seemed to relax. “Oh, okay. Well, I know she’s been weird since that. Angry, you know? But it’s different now. I think. I mean, uh, she’s been weird about Ally leaving.”

“What do you mean?”

Alec was focusing on the ground again, practically mumbling as he said, “I don’t want to like, expose any secrets, because I totally respect that she has confidence in me--” Luke snorted, but Alec continued, “--And I don’t want to ruin that. But when Ally left the first time, Emma was really on edge about it. And when Ally didn’t come back for a week, she was completely pissed. She even tried to stop Ally from leaving the second time by stealing her lacrosse stick, but Ally had already made another sword and took that instead. Then Emma was livid. And now when anyone brings up Ally, she just says that there’s only one way to put an end to this. And I just--Well, the point is, I’m just kind of worried. Emma’s been having nightmares I think, and I’m afraid for Ally.”

“Afraid for Ally?” Luke laughed, clapping Alec on the shoulder. “Dude, out of all of us, Ally can handle herself. If you’re worried about Emma and Ally fighting, don’t. Emma can’t do anything. Even if she is mad, she can’t do shit. Relax, alright, dude?” He smiled again and moved off, walking out of the hallway.

Alec watched him go, biting his lip. “Yeah. Dude. Okay.” He sighed, turning back to go to his room and his books. They’d understand him. Even if Luke thought Emma wasn’t dangerous, he’d best be prepared if something did happen. What she had been saying in her sleep was more than enough to be worried about, for sure. 

Alec chewed on his lip, shuffling around his books until he found his favorite copy of _Complacency of the Learned._ The book always talked about how important it was to keep moving forward. Why was everyone but Emma worried about their stand still?

 

LB: i dont think were ever gonna get off this planet  
AD: isn't emma planning a big roadtrip to prospit when we get done though?  
LB: well  
LB: yeah  
LB: but idk if its gonna happen  
LB: she keeps getting all weird about you and me and alec leaving the house and saying something about 'only way out'  
LB: also she talks in her sleep and its getting creepy  
AD: according to fran, she sleeps all day  
AD: have you seen her in dreams yet?  
LB: no and i dont think were going to  
LB: you me and alec are already on derse so thatd just be the rest of them on prospit  
AD: well shit  
LB: what  
AD: fran hasn't seen her  
AD: she said her tower's gone  
LB: gone  
LB: what the hell is gone supposed to mean  
AD: idk but fran hasn't seen her  
AD: and she said alec's super sad about it, which is adorable  
LB: yeah hes probably bummed he has no one to follow around  
AD: well either way, it's weird  
AD: i wonder what it means  
LB: who knows  
LB: every fucking thing means something here  
AD: tru dat

 

When Luke got particularly antsy about not being able to leave, Emma would give him smaller tasks that involved picking certain plants or finding the right kind of rocks for her to use or even letting her know what kind of clouds were in the sky. Often, while out doing these ridiculous tasks, Luke found himself daydreaming about what the other planets must be like. Emma had thoroughly destroyed most of the jetpacks after Ally left the third time, and Fran had caught on quick enough to hide her and Ivan's in a closet. It was probably for the better he wasn't out there with Ally. He'd probably stay away forever, get lost on his own adventure and never come back.

Well, he'd come back for Ivan. Ivan was pretty chill.

Luke had taken up drawing again, as well. He drew endlessly with his colored pencils that Ally had brought back from a trip to his planet, creating the characters Ally messaged him about and writing little stories. He got so caught up in them sometimes that he didn't realize he'd missed nearly a whole day and a new slew of messages from Ally.

"You are always smiling when you read her messages."

Luke jumped, nearly dropping his phone in surprise. He was in the kitchen, drawing at the table. Apparently, Fran and Ivan had sat down across from him and he hadn't even realized it.

"Do you liiiike her?" Fran pushed in a sing-song voice, and Ivan smiled fondly at her white Luke glowered.

“I am sorry, we should know better. Cool guys such as Luke do not _liiiike_ people." Ivan gave him a knowing look, and Luke blushed.

"Shut up, it's just cool stories." He set his phone down, locking the screen so that they couldn't see the multiple hearts Ally had put on the end of her message. 

"What, like the ones you're drawing?" Fran wiggled her eyebrows, and Luke groaned.

"I lied. You two are so annoying. I wouldn't come back for you."

Ivan and Fran exchanged a glance, then Ivan asked, "So. How do her quests go? Is she any closer to finishing them?"

"Um, she finished the ones on Alec's planet today." Luke said, shuffling his drawings around. The drawings of Alec's planet were...uh, private. Not for sharing, definitely. "Moving on to mine next, then she's doing hers after."

"It's so weird that she's able to do our quests for us." Fran mused, turning a drawing of Dave the monkey sideways so that she could see it better. Luke had drawn him at a very unflattering angle and gave him stupid sunglasses to match. "The game designs each planet for that player. How come she can do all of them?"

"She does have an uncanny ability to empathize." Ivan answered, giving the drawing of some salamanders going down a slide a funny look. "Perhaps she is able to mimic our actions enough to get the job finished."

"Probably not the denizens, though." Fran told him, and Ivan nodded. Before Luke could ask what the hell a denizen was, they stood, leaving the kitchen and whispering.

He sighed, pulling out one of the most recent drawings. It was of Ally, on Ivan's planet, sitting with Dave the monkey in a tree. The sunset in the background had ignited her hair, giving it a fiery hue as she stared into the distance. It was a close up, and he had put so much detail into her features that he was almost embarrassed.

Slowly, he stood, walking with his drawings in his hand to Ally's room. Just like every other one before it, he folded the drawing, tucking it gently into her pillowcase. The others were still there. It didn't surprise him, honestly. She'd hardly been home enough to sleep in her own bed, and when she did, she'd passed out on Luke's bed in the middle of a story both times.

Pulling himself out of his memories, he walked himself back to his room. He set his sketchbook on his desk, crossed off another day on the calendar, and sat down in the wheely chair next to the window.

They'd been here for a month and a half.

He felt like it had been a useless month and a half. 

 

\- - - - -

 

Ally was floating above a purple landscape, not a care in the world.

Ever since they had entered the medium and gathered on Emma’s planet, her dreams had been less and less clear and more like the dreams she had when she was younger. Just like the other kids, she knew she was on Derse interacting with them, but for some reason, she never felt like she was actually participating. She was just an observer, floating her way through the moons. Time had no matter here, and everything was okay.

And just like all the other dreams since she turned 16, her phone began ringing.

She had consulted Alec’s dream books numerous times while she was on his planet going through his stuff, but she still couldn’t find a suitable reason for her phone ringing in every single dream. Most of the explanations said it was a part of her life that she was ignoring, or some aspect of herself that needed attention. However, there was no part of herself she could imagine that could be represented by such an angry individual.

_“Ally, you need to wake the fuck up.”_

She floated along, giggling to herself as the now-familiar voice floated through the line. It was the same guy every time who called her, always saying the same things.

_“I’m so fucking serious, don’t do your shitheaded giggle thing. My eternally astounding patience is wearing unbearably thin and I am this close to losing my shit and giving the fuck up. Your Jegus would be so disappointed in you.”_

“Why should I?” Ally answered lazily, swooping lower in the landscape. The purple grew around her, although out of focus, like a stained watercolor painting. 

_“Because you’re not actually awake and it’s literally screwing everything up.”_

“How can I screw things up if I’m not awake?” Well, it made sense in her head.

_“Because you think you’re awake! But everyone knows you’re a lazy piece of shit that sleeps all the fucking time--”_

“I don’t sleep all the time. Emma does.” Ally interrupted quickly, a sharp pain shooting through her chest. She paused, feeling her stomach for a moment to check if she’d been shot or something. Why was that feeling happening? She’d never felt anything but a warm, fuzzy feeling while dreaming. This, however, was like a splash of ice cold water.

_“Oh, is it Emma that makes you angry? Shit, I should’ve known from the beginning. Yes, tell me more about how fucking lazy Emma is.”_

“She sleeps the whole time.” Ally mumbled, still confused over the weird feeling in her chest. “She won’t talk to me, and she’s angry when she does. We all try and ask her what we’re supposed to be doing, but she’s always asleep.”

_“Why are you even listening to that sleepy sack of shit then?”_

“I don’t know.” She frowned, realization dawning in her mind. She was angry. And not just kind of angry, very angry. Why the hell was she listening to Emma? Emma had done nothing to help them in the game!

_“Yes, there you go! Get mad! Feel the fucking rage! Realize you can’t please everyone!”_

Emma was the least helpful person here. They could have been doing so much, should have been doing _more than what they had_ \--

With a sickening lurch, Ally began falling from the sky, quick towards the ground. She righted herself just before she could hurt herself, floating just a few feet above the purple streets of Derse. Everything was in stark contrast now, each detail brilliantly outlined against the next. Her heartbeat was pounding in her ears, limbs and fingers regaining feeling as she straightened up, taking her first real breath of Derse air. She could see everything in perfect clarity, and as she looked up, a deep rumble began beneath her feet.

Looking around for the source of the sound, she caught sight of the other towers in front of hers. There was Luke’s, looking just as she remembered--

Alec’s was on fire.

“Alec!” She shrieked, launching herself through the air again. Would she be able to get to him in time? She pushed herself forward, flying, _flying_ \--

The tower exploded, sending her flying backwards through the air. The last thing she saw before she was slammed into a wall was the tower crumbling, falling down to the streets below.

 

Ally sat up with a gasp, the explosion still firing behind her eyes. “Alec!”

“Ally?” She heard a tired voice mumble in confusion, but she was already scrambling against the blankets, hurrying to get them off of her. Where was she? This wasn’t her apartment. These weren’t her blankets. Where was her brother? Or her laptop? She needed to message Alec, to text him, anything--

“Ally, what the hell are you doing?” A rough hand was grabbing her, stopping her from falling off the edge of the bed. She spun around, looking for her brother--

But found Luke instead.

He was bent over the edge of the bed, dark eyes wide and worried. His hair was messed up, not styled in its’ usual quiff. He looked like he had just woken up. “Ally? You okay?”

“I--” She frowned, and then it all came rushing back: She had entered the game, she had finished the puzzles on the other planets, and she had come back to the group. She must have fallen asleep on Luke’s bed, again. So had she dreamed all of that? More importantly, was it the waking dreams? “Alec, is he--”

No sooner had she gotten his name out than Luke’s door burst open, revealing a disheveled Alec. His glasses were gone, leaving his green eyes open wide and scared and looking so, so young in the center of his face as he looked into the room.

Ally jumped off of the bed, throwing herself onto him and wrapping her arms tightly around his shoulders. He clutched her back just as tightly, feet planted firmly as Ally leaned her full weight against him. “Oh, Jegus, Alec, I was so fucking worried! I thought you were dead, I saw it all on Derse. Your dream self is dead.” She pulled back, studying his face carefully. Her hands stayed on his shoulders, almost as if she was afraid to let him go. “Are you alright?”

“Ally, you were dreaming.” Luke told her cautiously, walking over to them. How had a dream shaken her so badly?

Alec looked up in the moonlight filtering through Luke’s window, his face unnaturally pale. “No, I don’t think she was. I mean, yeah, it was a dream, but I think she finally woke up.”

Luke narrowed his eyes, and with a few shaky breaths, Ally told them what had happened in her dream. She reached out and held Alec’s hand, watching him with worried eyes the entire time. When she finished, Luke went to get Fran and Ivan, Ally repeated her story, and they all finally realized just how dangerous this game could be.

 

\- - - - -

"Lucius, you can't be serious." Emma stared hard at the troll, eyes narrowed. She had gone along with her plans up to this point, but what she was asking was ridiculous.

"You know this is what needs to happen, Witch. Especially now that she has fully awoken." Lucius responded, brilliant white hair shining in the dim light. "Either do it, or you shall not ascend."

Emma bowed her head, then nodded once, quickly. With a snap of her fingers, the troll was gone, and Emma was blinking into the bright sunlight filtering into her bedroom.

She shook herself awake, pushing away the sense of dread that always seemed to follow. Yes, she had followed through on every plan. But now, she had to make the hardest decision of all: did she want to ascend, or did she want her friends? Listening carefully, she could hear them arguing downstairs. She crept out the door and down the hallway, pausing at the door of the room.

"No, this is stupid." Ally was saying, heat in her voice. And when was the Hero of Heart's voice not heated? "We've been here forever, done all of her shit plans. This is not how the game is supposed to be played."

"Oh, like you're an expert." Alec snorted, although his voice wavered weakly, and Ally fired right back. Her voice easily overpowered his, echoing into the hallway where Emma stood.

"I might as well be! I've read through that walkthrough dozens of times, not to mention completed everyone's quest for them!"

"Yes, Ally, please." Emma said haughtily, walking into the room finally, "Please, keep bragging about what a hero you are. Tell me how brave you are, even though that's the biggest lie I've heard. As if a player of heart would know more than a player of light."

"Thank you." Alec sniffed, unsure, then turning to say something else to Ally, but she was going off again.

"I don't give a fuck what his aspect is! If he knows so much, then he knows I’m right!" She was looking to Ivan and Luke for back up. "We're supposed to be advancing, ascending, you know? This game was not made for idle players. Yet you have us here like sitting ducks, waiting for something to come and happen to us."

"I don't understand why we can't just relax here." Emma sighed dramatically, looking away from the group. "Not like we can do anything worthwhile currently, anyways."

"Yeah, no thanks to you, gate destroyer." Ally spat, earning a surprised look from Luke and Alec. "Why don't you just go back to sleep?"

Everyone paused, glancing at each other. It wasn't like Ally to speak like that to Emma, even if she was mad. Did she know something they didn't?

"Gate destroyer?" Fran asked quietly, and everyone turned to look at Emma, who was now full on glaring back at Ally. When it became long enough to be awkward, Ivan finally stepped forward.

"If I may interrupt--"

"She blew up the gate."

Everyone froze and looked to Ally, who had practically growled out the sentence. Her light eyes were ignited from within, and Luke couldn't help but imagine it was a borrowed fire from her planet.

"What?" Ivan asked, and Ally repeated herself.

"She blew up the gate. Right after I got back from finishing the last quest puzzles, she blew up the gate that lead to the other planet. Both of them." She hesitated, wondering if she should continue. She was accusing Emma, her best friend since before she could remember, of something so terrible she couldn’t believe it had happened. How could Emma do this to them? Didn’t their game mean anything to her? 

Now, everyone was staring at Emma.

She straightened up, beginning to answer, "I have seen that it was necessary for us to proceed. If--"

"How the hell are we supposed to proceed if the gates are gone and our fucking witch is asleep all the damn time?" Ally shouted, hands thrown out on either side of her. She couldn’t stop herself anymore. “How can we proceed if you have our light player so afraid to speak up that he can’t get anything done? How are we supposed to proceed if we aren’t doing fucking anything?” Alec, surprisingly, found himself agreeing with her. Although he’d never admit it out loud, he had begun to doubt that Emma’s plans were really what was best for them.

"Speaking of you sleeping," Ally was continuing, pointing an accusing finger to Emma, "Where the hell do you go when you're asleep? We all dream about Prospit and Derse, but you're nowhere to be found!"

"I dream!" She shouted, finally starting to sound her age with the bitter tone that had seeped into her voice. "I have dreams just like you guys!"

"And what exactly are you dreaming about, Emma?" Alec spoke up finally, upper lip trembling slightly. "Because every single time we've been asleep, we've seen each other. We always see each other. But none of us see you."

"I--" Emma started, but Alec interrupted.

"No, no. Just answer me." He bit his lip then, as if to stop himself from shouting. Ally’s passion had inspired him, gave him the courage to finally ask what he’d been wondering all along. "Why don't you dream about me?"

The room was silent, everyone looking to Emma for the answers to the dozen of questions they had thrown at her. 

Emma looked around at the humans and troll surrounding her, a seething burn beginning in her stomach. In her mind, she could see each of their happiness, all of their dreams, each way they were selfish and needy and annoying.

_They're not worthy to join this new world._

Emma bit her lip, stopping herself from shouting the words she knew could rip each of them from the inside out, could tear them apart with a simple sentence. Her hands shook with how much hate was in her.

She knew the troll was right.

And she hated that, too.

Instead, she took a shaky breath and stated, "I'm going for a walk." She pushed her way past Ally and Luke, slamming the door shut behind her. The group was frozen, all staring at the now closed door.

"I'm sure it was an accident." Alec tried in the tense silence that followed. "She probably just thought it was the right thing to do--"

Ally shattered the vase above the fireplace with a single punch, and Luke cleaned it up when she stormed out of the house as well. Even though she wanted to believe Alec, wanted to think Emma had just made some mistake, Ally wasn’t sure if she could forgive her for this.

Luke threw the pieces of ceramic away, Alec took to hanging around Ally more, and Emma dreaming wasn't brought up again.

 

\- - - - -

 

"Oh my God, I did all the puzzles here, what more does she want?" Ally groaned, flopping back on the bed in her room. Fran only laughed in response, organizing her notes on the ground. Ivan, Alec, and Luke were off somewhere working on the 'quest' for this planet, and who knew what Emma was doing.

"Like honestly, we've been here forever." She continued, staring at the ceiling in Fran's room. "I did all of our quests on the other planets. The puzzles are done here. Everything's done. What are we waiting for? What other quests could there possibly be here? We could have been on Skaia ages ago."

"It's probably not the right time." Fran said in a terrible impersonation of Emma's voice, but decent enough that it made Ally laugh. "Besides, we can keep researching how to really play the game so that we’ll be great once we finally do leave. Who says we need to listen to her anyways?"

Ally looked over at her, confused. "I thought we were supposed to listen to the witches and the light players? Because they see the future and shit?"

"In dreams, yes." Fran nodded, scribbling something on a page. "But dreams are so confusing, it's hard to really remember. I think you and I have a much better grasp on what should be going on, anyways. Regardless of our aspects, we’ve actually read the walkthroughs."

Ally snorted, "Honestly, yeah. We should be the ones running shit." She sat up with a sigh, sliding off the bed. "I'm gonna go grab a snack, want anything?"

Fran shook her head, absorbed once again in reading the copy of the walk through. Ally smirked, shutting the door behind her and walking downstairs.

Outside, Emma was staring up at the window to Ally's room. 

She paused, terrified. She could see the path in her mind, see how it was supposed to help them into the next world safely, see how they needed everyone in order to safely proceed. But she needed to end the line. Lucius said she did. _"The line of heart must be destroyed."_ So why was that not the right thing?

Emma shook her head. Who was she kidding? She was the Witch of Life, she commanded what was right and what was good. Screw the upper gods of the darker reaches, screw Skaia and all of its' wisdom. She and she alone could see what was right: And she would do just that, regardless of if it destroyed nearly everything in the process. She grabbed her sword, strapping on the jetpack and raising her gun to point.

Luke, who was walking back up the path with Ivan and Alec, froze. Realizing a second too late what Emma was doing, his eyes widened and shouted, "Emma, no!"

Alec looked up just in time to see a bright flash of light strike down from the sky, hitting the side of the house with a terrible cracking sound just as the gunshot rang out. The three boys watched in horror as the structure promptly caught fire, then the rest of the house began cracking as well, jagged lines of deep black and blue making their way across the walls.

"The girls are inside." Ivan said quietly, and then they were all sprinting through the front door, throwing up their arms to shield their faces as they jumped over the flaming debris already falling from the ceiling. Inside the house was worse. Everything was on fire or smoking, making it hard to see or hear. Furniture was catching left and right, sending the temperature spiking up with every new flame.

"Fran!" They heard Ally shriek upstairs. "Fran, get the door open! Oh, God--"

Ivan took off first, leaping up the stairs two at a time. Luke quickly followed after telling Alec to get everything out of the house he could. He rounded the corner of the hallway to find both Ally and Ivan trying to wrench the door open to Ally's room, which was exactly where the lightning had struck. The frame had been warped and twisted, making the door stuck tight and unable to move in either direction.

In horror, he watched as the ground beneath them began to crack beneath their weight. "Guys! You need to get out of there!" He ducked sideways, trying to avoid the crumbling drywall. 

Ivan looked below him, then back to Ally's door. Luke shouted again, and with a twisted grimace, Ivan stepped back quickly, narrowly missing being hit by a falling beam.

"Ally! We've got to go!" Luke called desperately, stomach twisting as he dodged more flaming pieces of house. "Ally!"

"Fran, no!" She pounded on the door, throwing her entire weight against the door again and again. The floor groaned ominously with each shove, and Ivan finally jumped forward and grabbed her around the waist, wrenching her back. He pulled her down the hallway, all of them barely making it outside in time before the house finally began collapsing.

They stood on the front lawn, watching in horror as something crashed out of a window, rolling to a stop on the grass beside the house. Luke's stomach dropped as he saw her, a chill spreading through his entire body.

Emma was standing, her thin-bladed sword dripping with fresh blood. Red blood.

Fran's blood.

"You _bitch!_ " Ally shrieked, voice cracking with the volume she forced out. Tears fell down her face, and Ivan had to keep his hold on her to keep her from running forward and tearing Emma apart with her bare hands. It took everything he had not to let her go, and to follow her.

Emma merely looked at them, a strange blue glint emanating from her eyes as she said, "I did what had to be done. Nothing but collateral damage. An unfortunate coincidence." Then, she took off, jetpack igniting below her.

"It's my fault." Alec whispered, barely being heard over the crumbling of the walls. He was sitting on the lawn in front of them, various possessions scattered around him: Ally's many sword and hammer combos made from her lacrosse stick; what remained of the jetpacks; Luke's sword he made out of a colored pencil; Ivan's knives made from various metals they had no idea existed except for on the other planets. Alec's own sword was there, looking small next to the others.

"What?" Luke asked, exasperated and emotionally shocked. "Alec, honestly, not everything is about you--"

"No, it's my fault." Alec finally looked up from the ruins of the house, staring directly at Ivan. He looked like he was begging for forgiveness, especially from Ivan. Ally bit her lip, watching. They all knew how much Ivan cared for Fran, and she knew Alec was taking that to heart. "I kept defending her, saying it wasn't her fault. I literally said she didn't know what she was doing. But she did. She's as crazy as you all thought, but I was too blind to see it. I always knew she was dangerous, but I was too afraid to do anything but follow her."

Everyone was quiet. They all blamed him, Luke could feel it. But no one wanted to say that out loud.

"I knew it." He looked to the ground, a calm sort of resolve coming across his face. Ally froze in Ivan's grasp, afraid of what he had made his mind up about. What was he about to do? Nothing drastic, right? His dream self had already been killed by an accident--but maybe not an accident, now that she thought about it. 

He nodded to himself, a small movement, but his expression grew peaceful, and Luke's stomach plummeted. "At least my knowledge was useful for once. I knew where everything important in the house was." He turned to look at them, a sad smile quirking up the side of his mouth. "I wish I could have been more helpful. I'm sorry, guys. For everything."

And then suddenly he was turning, sprinting past them, shouting to Emma. They all turned to watch him, frozen in their place, where he was further out on the front lawn, staring up at her.

"Emma!" He pointed at her, shoulders rigid and tensed as he gripped his own sword, covered in ashes from the fire. Ally tried to leap forward, but Ivan held onto her once more, even as she struggled against him. "I never should have defended you! I see now all the destruction you caused. Come down here and fight me!"

All Emma did was laugh, and they knew he was no match for whatever sorcery had taken over her mind. Ally watched in horror as Emma dove downwards, a maniacal grin on her face. Her sword slashed through the air one more time before Alec could even hope to react, leaving yet a second fallen friend in its wake. Emma turned, jetpack carrying her up to a large, metal ship in the sky, the cold red mimicking the color of the flames. It was pointed straight at a giant tear in the sky, and Ally wondered how they hadn't noticed that before.

Luke actually cried out, hand grabbing onto Ally's shoulder roughly as they saw the body drop to the ground, still. Ivan's hold on her tightened, fingers pressing bruises into her rib cage as he trembled behind her.

Ally's chest felt like it was being ripped in two.

 

\- - - - -

 

"Luke..." Ally's voice trailed off, gazing around her. He nodded, unable to say anything in response.

They had since placed Alec's body in the house as well, watching the flames climb higher as more and more caught fire inside the building. Their home for the last two and a half months was burning in front of them, as was what little hope Luke had left. For the first time in his life, Luke completely understood the emotions whirling around in Ally’s brain.

He reached out and grabbed Ally's hand firmly, ignoring the glare Ivan shot his way. This was so not the time to be lectured on romance.

"We'll be okay." Luke whispered, and Ally nodded, the look on her face changing quickly from sadness to a resolved anger. Her eyes flicked up to the large ship in the sky, sailing solidly towards the crack in space. Emma may not be with them anymore, and she may have killed Fran and Alec, but she was who they needed to follow.

Luke could see it now, in the weird future sense he sometimes got when he listened to the whispers on Derse for too long. He could see them flying after Emma, another struggle on a strange planet, following her to a different Prospit to fight her and get some kid back. He could only hope it wouldn't end as badly as he was seeing it would. All of his visions ended badly.

"She was wrong."

They turned to look at Ivan, now crossing his arms and watching the ship as well. He looked at them, yellow eyes glinting in the firelight, mirroring the anger in Ally's. "We are brave. Braver than she ever could be. And that's why we'll win."

 

 

They walked silently along the path, following the ship from the ground so they could preserve the fuel in the jetpacks for when they'd really need them. 

Ivan kept his gaze on the ground in front of him, even more silent than usual. He steadfastly ignored the bright pink flowers and the memories that came with them, ignoring as well Ally's sniffles from the head of their party.

Their party of three.

Hardly a party.

He was angry. Yes, he could understand the sadness Ally was feeling, and the hopelessness that was easily readable on Luke's face, but he was angry. Angry with himself, mostly. Angry he hadn't been here to stop Emma. Angry he hadn't been strong enough to break down Fran's door to save her as a full grown highblood like himself should have been able to. Angry he hadn't attacked Emma instead of holding Ally back. Angry he hadn't been able to stop her from killing a second friend. It seems he lost his usual courage whenever he needed it most.

For a player of time, he had never felt so betrayed by it than now.

Even with the amount of fire he had seen today, he felt cold inside. The chill that had first spread throughout his body upon seeing Emma had only grown, encasing his entire being in an arctic shock. Fran had always joked about them getting to see the stars up close, and now she'd finally be able to.

The look of happiness he had seen in the Thief of Space had cracked open his own facade, opening him up to a new kind of happiness that he may never feel again. She had shown him what home and a family felt like. And now, his thief had been stolen from him, and a different kind of sadness took its place.

They had left as soon as they could. Gathered up what little Alec had saved before he too was lost, and gotten out of there. They were on a dangerous path, one he knew would leave them worse off than before but he knew they had to take. He didn't need to be a Seer to know that.

Regardless of what happened, he was ready for it. He gripped his knife tighter, feeling subconsciously for the others along his belt. Whether it brought happiness or death, he was ready. He was ready. All he needed was the thought of her to push him forward, the thought that just maybe she was still out there somewhere. After all, she still had a dream-self. If he was lucky enough, he'd be able to see her again.

"Time to fly up to the giant crack in the sky." Ally mumbled, tightening the straps on her jetpack. Luke nodded, casting a glance to Ivan before they all took off. Ally led the way, leading them up into the sky and into the darkness.

Upon entering, they saw a long, glistening path below them, leading straight ahead to where they could barely make out the outline of the ship, flying away from them.

"The ship should make it to the end in about three days.” Ivan stated, doing the calculations in his head. "If we fly, we can do it in four days, but we do not have enough fuel for that."

"How long walking?" Ally asked, and Ivan answered, "A week, maybe eight days if we stop frequently."

Ally nodded, and as one, they descended, landing on the road. It was slick, as if it was made out of glass. Its light was all its own, however: there was no light in the surroundings.

As they began walking, a sad silence settled over them, and Ivan found himself feeling even colder than before. She had meant everything to him, everything that she could mean.

Ally grabbed a hold of his hand after a while, and even though Luke was giving him a funny look, Ivan welcomed the contact.

After all, even robots need blankets.

 

 

"God, this place is terrible."

"Luke, stop complaining." Ally rolled her eyes, and Luke made a face at her.

"Like, I get it, that we're in between space and reality and whatever, but it's so boring!" He gestured around him. "It's just black, everywhere. We've been walking for a few hours now and it's still black. It's so dark. Literally the only thing out here is this shiny fucking rainbow road from Mario Kart. It’s just...It's just so..."

"Lonely." Ivan finished the sentence for him, ignoring as Ally and Luke stared at him. 

"Well, yeah." Ally said quietly. "I mean, we are all alone now. At least," She added on quickly after another look from Luke, "Until we hit the next session. That's what she was saying in her sleep, right? We're going to a new session? We won't be alone there! There'll probably be more kids there."

They looked ahead of them, where they were beginning to see quite literally the light at the end of the tunnel. Ivan didn't want to think about what sort of carnage Emma was about to wreak before they could arrive.

"There'll be people there." There was a strange hope in Ally's voice, and Luke smiled over at her. 

"Yeah. Probably." He looked back ahead, shrugging his shoulders to settle the jetpack in a more comfortable position. "Hopefully Emma hasn't killed them, too."

Everyone got silent quickly, and Ally finally said, "Well, we can hope she's over her killing spree. Maybe it's like, mind control or something. A weird part in the game. The next step after beating all the puzzles."

"So you think we can save her?" Luke asked, and Ally shrugged.

"Maybe. How should I know? You're the one who can see the ending."

"Only the doomed ones." He sighed, looking at Ivan. "Maybe I'll get better when I start ascending or something."

"Yeah, wait." Ally looked over to Ivan. "How do we ascend? I don't know if I told you guys, but I hit the top of my echeladder when I was out there doing the puzzles. There was a lot of weird skeleton things I had to beat up for the harder ones. So what do I do next?"

"What's an echeladder?" Luke asked, but Ivan was already answering.

"I assume there is no higher to go, unless you reach God Tier." He frowned. "But that is supposedly very difficult. I don't know if it was ever explained how to do that."

"You have to die, right?" Ally asked quietly, and Luke was still reeling from all the game speak he didn't understand. He was so out of the loop. "Just, like, special circumstances, I think."

Ivan held her gaze as they walked forward, then turned away. "Well, let's hope it doesn't come to that."

Luke looked at the ground, focusing hard on the subtle shifting colors beneath his feet. It was hard to imagine that in a few days, they could be fighting for real. Was he ready? Hell, he was only 17.

With a bitter grimace, he remembered that Fran was only 14. She hadn't even had a chance to really live.

"If it does come to that, we'll do it for her." He said decisively, and he didn't need to look up to know that Ivan and Ally were nodding.

 

They made it in just under five days. Ally took a deep breath, tightening the straps on her jetpack--and they were off. They flew through the bright crack in front of them, eyes blinking rapidly to adjust to the light. As soon as her eyes refocused, Ally looked down--

And saw Luke's house.

She stopped just as abruptly as Luke, Ivan pausing to give them a weird look.

"What is the matter?" He asked, flying back over to them. Of course, he hadn't flown around the other planets like Ally had. He didn't know.

"That's my house." Luke frowned, staring hard at the building below them. "How is that possible? We're supposed to be in a different universe, right?"

"Wrong!"

The three spun, eyes flying wide open as they landed on who had spoken behind them. Ivan's fists clenched, as though getting ready to fight. His thoughts seemed to echo Luke’s, _How was this possible, how was this possible, how was this possible--_

Ally was the first to speak, voice tight. 

"Fran?"


	2. Ally: Defend==>

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your name is Ally Richards, you've been in the game for two months, and you've lost more than you'd care to admit. What you are willing to admit, however, is that you're willing to risk it all to save the ones you love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> theme song for this chapter is "The Kids Aren't Alright" by Fall Out Boy, in addition to the entire album Monsters in the Closet by Mayday Parade. enjoy!

It was Fran. It had to be.

Granted, she was now a ghostly white, almost see through but not quite, and glowing a strange pink color--but it was Fran. Her smile shone outwards at them, calling out, "Hey guys!"

"What the fuck." Luke wheezed, and Ally asked, "How the hell are you here right now?"

Fran paused, as if just now realizing how awkward this was. "Oh! I forgot, yeah. You guys all saw me die. I'm sorry!" She flew a bit closer to them, and Ally saw Ivan tense up as she continued. "I did die, back there. But Ivan's sprite was in the fire as well! And I got prototyped!" She grinned at them, and Luke asked again, "What the fuck?"

"Okay, I know this is weird, but she's still 14." Ally gave Luke a glare. "Ghost sprite thing or not, she's young and you should watch your mouth."

"Oh, but I'm so much wiser now!" Fran--er, Fransprite? Luke didn't know what to call her--interrupted, eyes lighting up. "I know so much about the game now! Just like I know you're wrong about this being a different universe!"

They exchanged a glance, Ally asking, "Okay...So if this isn't a different universe, what is this?"

"This is the result of a scratch in the game! Just like you guys!" Luke couldn't help but think Fransprite's voice had a hollow sound to it, almost like she was speaking from farther away. Fransprite continued, "I can't tell you everything, because us sprites are required to be a bit mysterious, but I'll do what I can.

"Your reality resulted because of a scratch in someone's game. A scratch in the Sburb session results in a total reset of the game, completely wiping the memory. So, since someone else scratched, their session was reset. However, that session scratched as well, and produced yet one more reality. Then a fifth scratch happened! You come from the result of the fifth scratch where the heroes who were supposed to go never even played the game!"

"Then what is this, then?" Luke pointed to his house. "Another scratch?"

"Yes, exactly!" Fransprite clapped her hands. "Very good, Luke! This session is a result in a third scratch in your own session! The universe is full of twists and turns and always keeps--"

"Yeah, yeah, but why is my house here?" Luke interrupted, and Ally asked, "Is this like, an alternate Luke or something?"

Before Fransprite could answer, a window below shattered, drawing their attention downwards.

"Oh, right." Ally mumbled. "Gotta fight some troll and our possessed friend." Without another word, she zoomed downwards, leaving Luke and Ivan to trail after her.

As Ally neared the window, shouts were heard inside, along with more shattering glass. Jegus, how much glass was in this kids house? She could see in the window now, could see Emma directly inside. Grimacing, she let out a yell and shot through the window, barreling into Emma and sending them flying through the next wall of the room. 

Ally cut the power to the jetpack, causing them to roll end over end on the floor through the cloud of drywall, screaming the whole time. When they skidded to a stop against another wall, Ally threw her weight against Emma once more, hearing a solid thunk as they finally stopped. Ally stood shakily, watching Emma warily as she slumped onto the floor. Emma, however, was not getting up anytime soon.

"What the hell is happening?" Ally heard Luke ask behind her, and she turned to answer him. "Well, Emma's down for the--oh, shit, you're not Luke." She stepped back, eyes wide.

His dark eyes widened a bit, and he looked at her quizzically. "And you are not what I expected to come flying through my window."

While he sounded almost exactly like Luke, she realized now that his voice had been a bit deeper. How had she not caught it? It wasn't too surprising, seeing as the kid in front of her looked nearly identical. His jaw was squarer, and he was built where Luke was tall and lanky, his hair wasn't as straight and looked like he actually combed it, and there were light freckles on his nose--

"Did you get Emma?" Ivan's voice called over, and she heard them landing in the other room.

"Um." She answered intelligently, still staring at Not-Luke. Thankfully, he seemed as flustered as she was.

"Oh, shit, what did you do to her?" Luke laughed, finally walking in the room. When his eyes landed on Ally and Not-Luke, his laugh faded away, and he asked, "Who is this?"

They both jumped, turning to look at Luke. They glanced at each other, then Ally started, "Uh, he's just a kid--"

"Just a kid? I'm 18--"

"--And Emma was attacking him so I got her--"

"--She put a fucking hole in my wall--"

"I saved your ass!" Ally rounded on him, and he stared down at her. He was a good six inches taller, but she didn’t back down.

"You destroyed my house." He gestured to Emma's body, still on the ground. "You and your friend here broke so much shit! You're lucky my dad's not here." Then his head snapped up, giving Luke the same look he had given Ally earlier. "Although, you do bear a creepy resemblance to him."

Luke gave him a weird look, but was cut off as Emma groaned, finally starting to stir. Ally cursed, shoving Not-Luke back into his room through the gaping hole in his wall. "Shit, we gotta get you out of here."

"Ally, I am not sure we can leave." Ivan told her, and Not-Luke jumped back from him, eyes wide.

"What the hell is that?!"

"Wow, rude." Luke frowned. "That's our friend Ivan. He's an alien." Not-Luke stared at him in disbelief, and Ally pushed past him.

"What do you mean we can't leave?"

Ivan gestured out the window. "There are more cracks in space. I am not sure where we would go if we were to exit through them."

Sure enough, more technicolored breaks had ripped through the sky, and Not-Luke shrank back closer to Ally. "What the..."

They heard a shout from the next room, and Ally made the decision. "Well, I'd rather risk more rainbow road travel then have to deal with the crazy witch over there. Not-Luke, hold on." Before he could ask what was happening, she had spun him around and tied the extra straps from the jetpack around his waist, then locked her arms around him, kicking on the jetpack. "Let's roll, boys!"

Not-Luke screamed as she took off, flying them out the window and higher into the sky. Behind her, she heard Ivan and Luke following, and then the tell-tale shriek that meant Emma had woken up and realized what was happening.

"Stop squirming." She grunted, struggling to hold onto him. He finally wrapped his arms around her shoulders, squeezing tightly and keeping his eyes shut. She looked upwards, eyes scanning the various cracks for a glimpse into them--but what she saw instead was several meteors, slowly growing closer.

"Were you about to start a Sburb session?" She asked in surprise, remembering what had happened when they started their own game. He nodded against her neck, otherwise remaining still. She sighed, veering to the right to aim for a different crack--and narrowly missed being hit by some sort of bright flash of light.

"What was that?" He shrieked in her ear, and she looked over her shoulder to see Emma following close behind them, firing something that looked like a kids laser gun that you'd buy at Wal-Mart for six dollars.

"Crazy girl's firing at us." She answered shortly, then said sarcastically, "By any chance, what's our probability of surviving inter-dimensional travel in just a jetpack?"

"Like, five thousand to one." He gripped her tighter, and she laughed. 

"Let's be the one percent!" She hit another button on her jetpack, sending them speeding ever-faster towards a crack. He whimpered again, and she heard Luke shout something behind them, but they were close, so close, and Emma was still firing--

Twenty feet, ten feet, _five--_

They whipped through the crack, the sound of gunfire--laserfire?--and shouting instantly dropping away. It was eerily quiet, except for the sound of the wind flying past their face. Not-Luke even chanced a glance up, looking around them with an amazed expression on his face. He whispered, "Where are we?"

Ally looked up as well, studying their surroundings. "In between universes or timelines or something, I guess." The colors were still all around, except flying by in fleeting streaks, disappearing just as quickly as they'd appear. She felt weightless, as if they were flying through nothing. In front of her, she could see a smaller crack, and directed the jetpack towards it.

Behind her, with a weird snapping sound, she heard a, "What the hell?" and, "What a strange feeling," and knew that Ivan and Luke had made it through the crack. Just as they reached fifteen yards from the next crack, she heard another snap, and a furious shriek that could only belong to Emma.

"Fuck, I thought we lost her!" Luke shouted, and he and Ivan sped up to follow Ally through the next crack. There was a strange tingling sensation, as if her molecules were being sifted through--

\--And then they were flying above a golden city, buildings and walkways gleaming and shining gold underneath them.

"Prospit." Ally whispered, eyes wide. They had finally made it. But--was this their Prospit?

"Best not to get your hopes up, heir." Ivan said, flying a few feet behind her. "The universe may be full of happy surprises, but I would not be hopeful that this was one of them."

"Uh, Ivan." Luke pointed to their left, at a tower directly in front of them. "I think this may be exactly one of them." Even Not-Luke turned to look, his dark eyes flicking around in curiosity.

The tower ahead of them had a waving figure in it, and as they flew closer, they could clearly pick out Fransprite.

"You're kidding." Ally laughed in disbelief, then flew them over, zipping through the window and landing awkwardly on the floor. With the weight of Not-Luke moving in the opposite direction, they toppled over, Not-Luke landing heavily on top of Ally. Fransprite was calling out, urging the boys to hurry, and as soon as Ivan and Luke had landed--a lot more gracefully than the first two had--she waved her hands, and the sky outside grew dark again. The tower spun quickly, sending them all shifting around on the floor. The bright flashes of technicolor appeared once more once the tower had stopped spinning.

"What'd you do?" Luke asked, unstrapping his jetpack.

Fransprite grinned. "I accidentally prototyped myself a second time with my dream self. She was a lot more in tune with her powers, and now I'm a full Thief of Space!"

Ivan frowned. "Are you saying you just relocated us inside of one of the cracks? Inside of paradox space?"

Fransprite nodded eagerly. "Just like we thought I could do! I did it so we could hide, figure out what we need to do next to keep Ben safe." She looked a bit troubled then, glancing back out the window. "I'm not sure I can hold it for very long though, since I'm half dead. But we're here now!"

"Who's Ben?" Ally asked loudly, still struggling underneath the boy lying on her. Why couldn't she grab the damn straps to untie them?

"That's me." He grunted, giving her a funny look. "The boy you kidnapped is Ben Baker. Thanks for asking."

Ally froze, looking up at him. "Baker?"

Ben rolled his eyes. "Yes. If you make a joke about bread, I will thoroughly ignore it."

"God, for someone with the same last name as me, you sure talk like a nerd." Luke sneered, and Fran winked at him.

"Last name, and half your genes, too!"

Ally, who had finally untangled their straps and pushed him off of her, asked, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Ben looked up in surprise to Luke. He seemed to have caught on much quicker. "Wait...you're saying that _is_ my dad?"

Luke grimaced. "What the fuck? No, I'm 17--"

"Yes it is!" Fransprite zoomed down to Luke, pinching his cheek. "Our Luke here is a father in a different timeline, the sixth scratched universe! One where you all never made it in the game, so your kids were going to go!"

"Our..." Ally trailed off, unable to keep herself from looking to Luke. "Our kids?"

Fransprite nodded, seemingly oblivious to her blushing face. "Yes! This is Emma and Luke's kid, Ben! Ivan has a descendant on a different planet, but he ended up in a previous timeline. Alec and I had a child as well, named Marie."

"Marie was about to start playing when that crazy girl burst into my room." Ben spoke up, eyes wide. "Is she alright?"

Fransprite got quiet, and Ben looked at the ground. Ivan glared out the window, mumbling, "How fitting, for neither of them to make it."

"Fitting indeed." Fransprite agreed, face eerily chipper for the subject at hand. "They seem very bent on ending the line of heart, even going so far as to destroy the lineage from any angle, in every reality. So sorry about your brother, Ally."

"What?" Ally snorted, “My brother wasn’t even home when we played the game. He’s not here.” Fransprite bit her lip.

"You don't know yet? That you and Alec were paradox clones?"

"I…” She cocked her head, confused. “What the hell does that mean?" Ally asked, looking between her and Ivan.

"I did wonder why they looked so much alike." Ivan mumbled, and Fransprite continued, "You two were related, technically speaking. It happened through all sorts of weird time mishaps. When Emma said the line of heart must end, that's why she didn't hesitate in cutting him down. Nor why she didn't hesitate to destroy him and his child in Ben's timeline. Because both of them were related to the line of heart. No doubt this Marie was to be a heart player, as well."

Ben sniffed hard, "I'd prefer it if you didn't say my friend was destroyed."

"Hey, it's alright." Ally said quietly, scooting closer to him and putting a hand on his shoulder. Her mind was still reeling, trying to grasp the fact that Alec and her had been related. She resigned to thinking about it later. There were more important matters at hand now. "It'll be fine. If you help us win the game, I'm sure we can get her back. Alec, too."

"And how are we going to win?" Luke asked, leaning back against the foot of the bed. "Our own session got destroyed by Emma. Ben's session was just demolished. We're hiding in paradox space from our crazy friend. How can we win?"

"We are still on our Prospit." Ivan spoke up. "Our entire session was not demolished, as you put it. Merely the gates to go from planet to planet. Maybe there is still work here for us to do."

"There is!" Fran smiled at him, back to her bright self. "You must find your quest beds! Although most of you were Derse dreamers, your beds were always here."

"What do we do when we find them?" Ally asked, ignoring how Ben was staring at her. She was totally ignoring it. Super ignorant. No don't glance at him--shit he's still looking.

Fran was quiet again, and with a weird smile, told her, "Well, we'll just get to that when we find them, right? I'll be there to help as long as I'm able to, but I think everything will work out as it was meant to."

A deep boom resonated outside the window, and Fran's eyes widened. "I cannot keep us here much longer. Your beds are in the center of Prospit, but I'm afraid that's all I can tell you." The boom echoed again, and she raised her hands. "I wish you luck, Heir of Heart, Bard of Doom, Seer of Time and Page of Mind. May you ascend as high as you can." 

With a wave of her hands, the tower spun, and everybody scrambled once more for their jetpacks. Ben, this time, seemed to be trying to help her, tying himself in as quick as he could while they all slid around on the floor. As soon as it stopped spinning, Fran shouted, "I'll buy you some time!" and flew out the window on the right. They heard a shout from Emma, and Ben looked worriedly after her.

"Go, go!" Luke shouted, immediately igniting the jetpack and zooming for the left window. 

"Hold on tight." Ally smirked, and Ben didn't hesitate to grab on as they flew out after the other boys. Behind them, she heard the gunfire return, although this time tenfold. She turned to look, but Ben grabbed her head, not letting her.

"No, don't look. Just keep flying." He shivered, holding on tighter. "Just fly. Fast, please." Ally nodded, kicking into high gear once again as Ivan led them down to the streets to keep them hidden. What could have been so bad that Ben didn't even want her to see?

They zoomed down purple staircases and around magenta corners, all while they heard the fighting up above them. Explosions continued blasting through the air, disturbing the citizens on the street. They pointed and screamed and ran, but Ally refused to look. Ivan turned and stopped suddenly, Luke nearly colliding with him.

"We have to go inside the castle." He told them, eyes narrowed. "The catacombs are located in the bottom of the dungeons. We should be able to hide for weeks in there, to explore and find our way to the center and to our beds."

A boom echoed above them again, and Ally nodded quickly. "Yeah, yeah, okay, let's just go." They flew in through a window, ignoring the shouts of the surprised people inside.

"Who are they?" Ben asked as they flew down another staircase, nearly knocking over a small group of them.

"I think they're called carapaces?" Ally answered, focusing on the tight corners. "Fran was writing something on them not long ago. Supposed to be based off of chess pieces or something."

"Yeah, of course they are." He nodded, sounding tired, like he was forcing himself to sound disinterested. "Everything here is a chessboard."

"It is?" Ally asked as they descended yet again, this time the temperature dropping as well. The decorations became fewer and fewer, and the smell of stale air was picking up.

"Yeah." Ben nodded, pointing even though he knew she couldn't see him. He was definitely Luke's son. "The streets are built with so many right angles and even the buildings all have a perfectly square layout. The big blue land below Prospit was even black and white, like a checkerboard."

"That must've been Skaia." Ally clutched Ben tighter against her as they had to fly sideways to fit in a small doorway. How did Ivan know where he was going? "Maybe that's where we'll end up after we finally make it out of here."

Ahead, Ivan was finally slowing down, all of them coming to a stop in front of a large, stone door. As they landed, Ally looked up to the top, where it was carved with dozens of symbols and words she couldn't read. They resembled some she had seen up top in prospit, but others were completely foreign to her.

"We have reached the catacombs." Ivan told them, placing a hand gently on the door. "From here on out, it is a maze. It was designed to not let anyone find their way to the center, as only the King and Queen know the exact path. I can't imagine why the game would place our quest beds in such a difficult place to reach."

"So, when you said we could hide for weeks, you meant we were going to be lost for weeks?" Luke snorted, shaking his head when Ivan nodded. "Well, here goes nothing!" He cheerily stepped forward, pushing the door open with a solid shove.

Ally paused, letting Ben out of the straps while she looked through the doorway. "Well, I don't know what I was expecting." She commented, putting her hands on her hips. Ben nodded next to her.

The door had swung open to reveal a long stone corridor, with small, red lanterns dotting the way until the hallway rounded a corner. A small, cool breeze rustled Luke's hair, and he sighed.

"Perfectly creepy in every way. Well, let's get this adventure started." He began the walk forward, ignoring Ivan rustle around in his pockets for something to mark the hallways with once they began making turns. He also chose to ignore how Ally and Ben were already whispering behind him, and he definitely ignored Ally's giggles.

They walked for days. Probably three days, because they slept three times in the catacombs. Ivan seemed to be able to keep track of time, but Luke had now idea how. Luke also seemed to be able to tell which way not to go, but otherwise it was complete guesswork. Sometimes they played rock, paper scissors, sometimes they flipped a coin Ben had in his pocket. Not only was it long hallways of endless stone, but every once in a while, a hole in the wall or a balcony opened up to a vast, endless darkness. They threw a lantern off one of the balconies one time, but it fell until they couldn't see the light anymore.

They never heard it hit the ground.

“God, that’s a far way down.” Luke mused, still leaning over the edge a bit. He gripped the banister tighter, looking to Ivan. “Is this like, the center of the moon? Just a big dark pit?”

“I do not know everything, Luke.” Ivan smiled, shrugging. He turned away from it, drawing a small marking on the wall so they know they’d come this way. “I do not think I could hope to know what exactly each thing in this universe is. What I do know, however, is it would be a very bad thing to throw anything into that pit that you would hope to get back.” He gave a pointed look to the colored pencil Luke was now dangling over the pit.

He glanced at it, then retracted his hand. “Yeah, guess so.” He backed away again, turning to continue down the hall. With a grimace, he called over his shoulder, “Come on, lovebirds. Let’s get a move on.” He marched on ahead, Ivan sighing a bit beside him. 

Ivan turned out to be a great sounding board for anything he said. Maybe he was a good listener, or maybe he was too polite to interrupt, but he listened to Luke ramble on about the different weapons he’d make if they got their hands on another randomizer. 

“It is not called a randomizer.” Ivan corrected quietly. “Honestly, for how good you appear to be at this game, it astounds me just how much you do not know.”

“Look, not all of us had time to sit around and look things up.” Luke snorted, waving his sword around in the air. He loved the way the colors flashed in the lantern light. “Some of us had important things to do.”

“Such as drawing pictures of an unrequited love?” Ivan prodded, and Luke’s head snapped to look at him, seeing a cocky smirk in place. Okay, maybe he’d been hanging out with him too much if the alien was starting to pick up his signature facial expression.

“It’s not unrequited!” He snapped, then corrected himself as Ivan continued to smile. “I mean, no! It’s not love.” He struggled to keep his voice quiet, even though Ben and Ally were trailing behind them a good twenty feet. “I don’t love her. Ew. Gross. Ally? Psh, no. She’s just some weirdo I met on the internet. She sings classic rock songs when fighting weird skeleton things. How could I possibly like someone like that?” Ivan’s smile grew wider, but Luke couldn’t stop himself. “Not to mention her hair is a stupid color. Bright red? It’s not even natural red. It’s like, apple red. That’s so obnoxious. What is she trying to prove?” He scoffed, “She’s so weird. Too weird for me. Sorry, Ivan.”

Ivan only shrugged, looking back ahead of them. “Whatever you say, bard.”

Luke rolled his eyes, resigning to giving up convincing him. It probably couldn’t be done. He shivered in the light draft coming from the way they were walking. That meant they had to be close, right?

“So you think we’ll find our beds down here?” He asked, breaking the silence between them.

Ivan nodded, horns catching the red light. “I do. Fran would not have lied to us.” He continued quickly, “Although I do not understand why they would all be located on Prospit. I’m sure whoever would have been ‘tailoring’ our session would have wanted them in a more difficult place to reach. But, as I have stated before, the game may be trying to help us, so it put them in a place it knew we would be and that the troll could not get to.”

“But why in a maze?” He pushed, “Why in the middle of a place we never went while dreaming?”

“Maybe that exactly is why.” Ivan told him, looking down at his hands as he spoke. “It knew you Derse dreamers would never be able to return to your moon, so it relocated them here, to mine.”

Luke turned to look at him for a minute. Never in his wildest dreams did he ever imagine he would be having a conversation like this, with an alien, no less. Honestly, if someone would have told him this when he was 13, he would have thought they were on drugs. A lot of them.

“How do you know so much about the game?” He finally asked, and Ivan smiled at him.

“Not all of us had such important things to do, Luke. Some of us had to sit around and look things up.” Then he turned back to face forward, leaving Luke to smile to himself before hurrying after him. 

The strange symbols appeared on the walls as well, dotting the way every hundred feet or so. It was how Ben kept track of how far they had gone. It turned out he was really good at numbers and figures, almost as good as Ivan was with time. Ivan explained that it was because of his aspect, Mind. Fransprite had called him the Page of Mind before she left, and Luke had instantly laughed about how he was on the exact opposite from Ally, who was the Heir of Heart. Ivan had only smiled, watching as both Ben and Ally blushed.

Fransprite still hadn't found their way down to them, and Ally could tell Ivan was bothered. While she didn't want to think about the worst that could have happened, she couldn't help but feel like they weren't going to see Fran again any time soon.

Ally and Ben had grown closer over the trip, talking all day and then again until they both fell asleep. She told him about her world and he about his, comparing things and discussing the differences thirty years made. He talked about his father and Ally talked about her brother, and she answered every question she could about Emma and why they were being followed. She talked a lot about Alec, reflecting on him a lot now that she knew they were related. Ben always remained silent, trying to offer funny stories on Marie, and they laughed about how similar they were. Ben always tried to seem like he was above emotions, and that he didn't care what was going on, but she could see straight past his facade.

Ivan also discussed things with them, explaining what he and Fran had learned during their research. He explained the scratch theory more in depth, told them how Emma was most likely being controlled by another troll through her dreams. A scratch resulted in a total reset, so it's not surprising that Ben's father didn't remember the game. Ally finally asked why Fran hadn't mentioned her in Ben's universe, but Ivan's mouth shut tightly. His only answer was a whispered, "Emma said the line of heart must end. I can only guess as to what the troll's intentions are of hopping through sessions like this." Ally's face had grown worried, and Ben had grabbed her hand, and Luke had looked away, a burning sensation in his gut.

They continued walking, Ally focusing hard on the stones beneath her feet. She wasn’t alive at all in the other sessions? How much longer did she have here before Emma and the troll finally got to her? Ben seemed to notice her worry, and he retook her hand in his, giving it a light squeeze. She relaxed instantly at the touch, shooting him a thankful smile. He nodded, then launched into a story about when he had ripped his pants when he was young to cheer her up.

That night, in the red lantern light, Ben couldn’t help but hear the sniff. He glanced around, taking note of people around him. Ivan was on his left, facing away, but his breathing was deep and even, asleep. He leaned up a bit to look to Luke, but he was asleep as well, a soft snore echoing out around the darkness they had grown accustomed to.

He heard it again, and turned to Ally. Her shoulders shook slightly, and instantly his gut twisted. He reached out a hand, then took it back, unsure if he should bother her. After the third sniff, he asked quietly, “Ally?”

She jumped, turning to look at him before wiping hastily at her eyes. “Hey, sorry, did I wake you up?” She whispered, laying back down and not quite looking him in the eyes.

“No.” He frowned, watching her. “Are you alright?”

She snorted, still not looking at him. “Yeah, yeah. Just thinking.”

His brow furrowed deeper. “Are you still thinking about what Ivan said earlier?”

All it took was one look from her, and he was rushing on, “Ally, we have no idea if you were still there. I didn’t know all of my friend’s parents and siblings, you could have easily been one of them. Don’t worry, honestly. I’m sure you took plenty good care of yourself--”

Ally reached out quickly, grabbing his hand. His mouth clamped shut, looking down at their entwined fingers. She laced her fingers quickly through his, pulling his hand closer to her. He blushed, flushing an even deeper red when she kissed his knuckle.

“You can stop rambling.” She whispered, giving him a watery smile. “Just...be here, yeah?”

Ben nodded dumbly, not daring to move as she rested her cheek against their hands. She let out a shaky breath, and he was eternally thankful his darker skin and the red light hid his blush. 

“Thanks.” She whispered after a few minutes, and it was nearly another two before he could control his heart rate enough to reply, “Yeah, of course.”

Eventually, her breathing evened out, sending a gentle wave every once in a while over their hands. He didn’t dare move an inch, remaining still even after she was well asleep. His blush finally died out after an hour, and he turned to look up at the ceiling. Ben studied a few of the symbols carved into the stone as if he were searching for answers to questions he didn’t even know how to ask yet.

The aspects and their individual abilities were harder for Ivan to explain, since he didn't know much about any, but he did the best he could. Ivan discussed a lot about how each planet was tailored for each player's growth, which was supposed to help them reach the god tier. Ally asked why she had been able to do everyone's tasks for them then, and Ivan had only shrugged.

"Fran and I had wondered about that as well. We think that as each game is its own entity, this game knew you would be the one to do them and none of us. So it gave you your own tasks to complete and grow, which you did. Reaching the top of your echeladder is a very important milestone in the game and allows for a lot of growth as a person. Supposedly, your powers become stronger and stronger the more you ascend. Our own quests must lie elsewhere, on our own journey as the game sees fit."

Ben loved that theory. He had immediately told Ally what he would do as a mind player, even though none of them were really sure what a mind player could do. He was so excited about becoming the best he could be that Ally let him ramble on, a fond smile on her face.

On the fourth day, they thought they heard someone walking in a corridor next to them. Ally waited a bit, then poked her head around the corner, checking to see if she could see anyone. She disappeared down the hall for a second, then came back holding a purple piece of fabric and a worried look on her face.

"Emma's here."

From then on, they hurried down the corridors, full on sprinting at some points. Having the feeling you were being chased was enough to push them to their limits. The worry began showing on everyone's faces, and they took shifts during the night to make sure they weren't ambushed.

Over the next three days, they heard Emma and whoever was with her twice more, and they ran until they couldn't run anymore. They would only stop at night when they were too tired to move any further. Ally volunteered to take the first shift, while Ben looked on in worry. She hadn't slept much the past two nights, shouldn't she be the one getting more sleep?

After a half an hour of tossing and turning, he finally gave up and moved to go sit next to Ally, whose feet were dangling off the edge of a balcony, shoes behind her. He sat next to her, making her jump a little.

"Didn't mean to scare you." He smiled, but she was looking away again, eyes troubled.

"It's fine. Just deep in thought."

"Sheesh, again?” He smiled, earning a smirk from her. “What're you thinking about?" He asked gently. He knew she would answer, she was always forthcoming and honest, especially to him. 

"Us." She gestured randomly in the air. "Our group. Whether we're going to make it or not." She sighed, looking upwards. He followed her gaze, unsure if he should interrupt. "I just...we're basically killing ourselves down here, trying to find our quest beds. And we don't even know what we're supposed to do when we find them. God, and we dragged some innocent kid into this, too." She looked over at him, green eyes bright and alive in the darkness. He watched, unable to look away.

"Emma had to go and follow some troll and ambush your world. I don't know what the point was, why she had to go into your timeline, but she was trying to get to you. I feel so bad that you're involved in all of this."

"Hey, no, it's okay." Ben nudged her with his shoulder, trying to smile. "It's not so bad, really. I mean, yeah, this isn't a desirable situation, but it's fine. It's been good, really."

Ally scrunched up her nose. "How has this been good? Seriously?"

He smirked. "Seriously. I mean, you guys have all been pleasant to me. You all answer my questions with a patience no one else has ever shown me. I've never really...had, uh, friends before." He looked down, picking at a scab on his knee. "I was never good at making friends, which my father didn't understand. I just couldn't understand people. They were so confusing. That's why I stuck to books and math problems, where there's a definite rule for everything that everything follows and everything makes sense. Well," He looked at her, eyebrow raised, "I guess it makes sense now. Being a mind aspect, or whatever Ivan told me."

She snorted, and he looked away again. "But you all, I consider you friends. You are kind, and compassionate, and I see now what I have been missing from my life. It was friendship, and it's the best thing."

"No, not really." Ally laughed, shaking her head sadly. Ben sat beside her, eyes watchful and caring. She continued, "Friendship isn't all good. It hurts, too. It fucking hurts, Ben." 

She looked down to her shoes, kicking her feet. "All I've ever done is love my friends. So much. I'd die for them, you know? Like, I had a lot of time to think about it lately. And I've almost done it a couple times, so I know I'm serious when I say it. I'm totally and wholeheartedly loyal because of how much I love them. And you know what I get in return? A bunch of fucking pain, that's what."

"Do they..." Ben restarted his sentence. "Are they not loyal in return?"

"They are, I guess. Just not in the same way? Like, I know for a fact that's how I am, but I can tell they aren't as sure." She shrugged. "I just...this power. My aspect or whatever. Well, I guess I can’t blame it on the aspect, but still. It just--I feel too much. So much, all the time. And because of that, because of how much I feel, it hurts whenever someone else feels differently. And it fucking kills whenever someone gets hurt, because I can feel it, too."

Ben frowned, hesitating before putting his arm around her. She leaned readily into it, almost melting into his touch. He smirked, nodding to himself. He had seen how touchy she was, in the physical sense. "Look, I may not get the whole emotions thing, being a Page of Mind and all, but I think I speak for everyone when I say they love you, too. Just...not in the way you can. You’re so sure that you’d die for them, but I think they would, too."

Ally looked up at him, eyes watery, and he shrugged with a small smile. "Let's be honest. You have the ability to feel so much more than those blocks of wood out there, myself included. They just don't understand the level to which your emotion extends, and the balances of the hormones are sure to be stronger, especially in your--"

"Oh, Jegus, don't bring your math and logic into this." Ally rolled her eyes, making Ben laugh. She leaned into him again, looking out at the darkness. He wondered why he had ever hesitated holding her like this before. She was warm, almost pliable, folding herself into his side as if she was meant to sit there. They sat in silence for a moment, then she whispered, "Thanks, Ben."

He pulled her tighter, setting his head on top of hers. "Anytime, Ally."

 

\- - - - -

 

It took a week for Emma to find them.

They had been down here for almost two weeks, and Luke was in the middle of complaining about it when they heard a shout echo behind them. Confused, they all turned to look, and saw Emma round a corner, sword pointed out in front of her.

"There they are!"

"Fucking hell." Luke swore, clipping into his jetpack. Ivan did the same, Ben hastily tying himself into Ally's with a panicked look on his face. As one, the group took off, jetpacks sending them flying down the halls.

"We need to find the quest beds!" Ivan shouted, but gunfire flew past them, signaling that Emma and the two carapaces they had seen behind her were in hot pursuit.

"She's trying to come after Ben!" Ally told them, unconsciously holding him tighter. For the first time, it occurred to her that he should have been the one flying, holding her. She was like, what, a foot shorter than him? 

"Split up, then." Luke yelled back. "Distract her. If one of us finds the beds, message the others." 

The three exchanged a glance, then nodded. At the next turn, they split off, Ivan and Ally splitting off at the next one. Ally zoomed down the corridor, hearing the angry shouts behind her as Emma tried to figure out who had gone which way.

"Ally, the same symbol keeps popping up." Ben shouted. "Look at the top right hand wall." Sure enough, something that looked like a pillow kept popping up. "I think we need to follow that. Next turn, look for the pillow symbol."

"Do you think it'll lead us to the beds?" She asked, worried. What if it meant something completely different?

"Well, it's worth a shot, right?" Ben asked, and Ally almost laughed in response.

"Oh, yeah. Always down to take a chance." And she proceeded down the left hand corridor, which suddenly dropped downwards, the sloping room growing colder and colder.

She could hear someone flying behind them, and she pressed on. Another left, a right, right, left, down again, strong wide turn right, left, _watch the pillows, follow the pillows--_

The jetpack made a choking noise, and began to sputter behind them. Ally, realizing it a second too late, shouted and began trying to untie Ben. They hit the ground hard, and Ally untied him in time before she could injure his back anymore than she already had with their first rough landing. He pulled her up, dragging her behind him while she undid the straps and let the jetpack clatter to the ground.

Heart pounding in her chest, they sprinted down the halls, hearing their pursuer grow ever closer. Another left turn--there was a door. A door stood in front of them, the strange symbol that had been on the Sburb game cover and in the patterns of the gates glowing in the center.

"Holy shit." Ally breathed, then ran faster, shoving the door open as she ran, tripping almost immediately up a set of stairs. Ben pulled her up again, and they sprinted to the top of the dais, nearly thirty feet above the ground. The beds lay there, all six in a large circle surrounding the same Sburb symbol. Each bed had a different symbol on it, which she guessed stood for each player.

"Okay, you look for instructions, I'll message them." Ally gasped, trying to catch her breath even as she pulled her phone out. Ben nodded, running towards the center of the circle. Ally typed quickly, pressing send just as she was clipped on the chin, sending her flying backwards a good ten feet.

"Ally!" Ben shouted, turning to run back as she wiped at the blood on her lips. She sat up on the stone ground, eyes laser focused on the bright red blood coating her fingertips.

"Oh, no you don't!" Someone cackled menacingly, and Ally looked up in time to see Emma flying on a jetpack towards him. He pulled out his shield-- _Alec's shield_ \--a second too late, and Emma hit him solidly on the shoulder, ramming into him. He spun a few feet back, and she kicked him again, making him fall head over heels down the stairs.

"Ben!" Ally shrieked, struggling to stand again. Her head was still spinning from the original impact, making it hard to focus on anything regarding her body. Just as she stood, Emma hit her from behind, knocking her further into the center of the circle. The next time Emma swooped down, Ally had her sword out, and she rolled in time to slash at the jetpack, severing one of the engines.

Emma dipped, nearly ramming into a bedpost. "You'll get it for that." She growled, blue eyes narrowing. Ally swallowed hard, scrambling for footing and sprinting across the circle to where Ben had gone flying, but Emma was tackling her again, sending them flying onto a bed. It was harder than she thought it would be, feeling as cold and hard as the stone on the floor did. They rolled around for a second or two, both struggling to gain purchase on the slick green surface.

Ally managed to grab onto Emma's jetpack strap, yanking her backwards, but Emma only spun and reached for Ally's sword. She yanked upwards, effectively headbutting Ally in the chin once more. Ally cried out, recoiling just as Emma wrenched the sword out of her hand. She threw it off to the side, tackling Ally back down. Ally's sword clattered down the stairs, the metallic noise echoing in the darkness.

Emma's hands were immediately at Ally's throat, glaring at her even as she struggled to get free. She leaned close, breathing out onto Ally's face. Emma was swimming in front of her, vision blurry and hard to determine. Her head hurt so bad, it wouldn't stop pounding. She needed air, but she could get none, and the room was starting to spin--all she knew was she had to stop Emma, had to stop her before she could do more damage. She had to stop Emma before she could get to Ben. But Emma's voice was wrapping around her throat, cutting her off, echoing through her mind, "The line of heart must be destroyed, and _this is where you end_."

Ben looked up from the bottom of the stairs, finally able to stand, eyes widening as Emma produced a sword. "No!" He pushed himself up, sprinting up the stairs as fast as he could and grabbing Ally's sword halfway up. Every tendon was screaming with pain as he hurried, but he ignored them, determined to make it. He looked up once more--

\--And his stomach dropped like lead.

He was too late.

Emma's blade was stabbing down through the air, plummeting straight into Ally's chest, who cried out one more time before he saw her arms go limp, one hand falling off the side of the bed.

Fury enveloped Ben, wrapping him in fire and sending him forward with lightning in his veins. He shouted out, surprising Emma, and plunged Ally's sword forward. Emma cried out and slid off of her, and he pushed her further, sending her off the bed and to the ground where she rolled, screaming loudly.

"Ally, Ally." Ben gasped, shocked as he realized tears were in his eyes. He was supposed to be detached, emotionless. "Ally, come on." He pulled the sword from her chest, letting it clatter to the floor. Her eyes shifted over to him, distant and fading and almost gone--

"Ally, no, please." He choked out, grabbing her shoulders and pulling her against his chest. Fuck being a mind player, _fuck_ being emotionless. He needed her, he needed her alive. "Don't leave me, please."

She turned her face up a bit, just enough that her glazed eyes could try and fail to focus on him. The blood was spreading through her shirt, covering his arms even as she wheezed, "Ben? Ben, I don't--What--Why are you crying?"

"Don't you leave." He growled, tears falling freely now. Why wasn't he stronger? Why couldn't he have run faster, stopped Emma? Shouldn't he have been able to use some sort of mind powers to stop this? What was the point of this game and his title if he couldn't use them yet? "Don't you die on me, Ally. Don't you dare."

She smiled up at him, making him freeze. It wasn't her usual smile, full of happiness and passion and sunshine and everything that made his head go fuzzy and legs grow weak. It wasn't the smile that she shared in the darkness, lit only by the lanterns when he swore she was made of nothing but fire and love. It wasn't the smile she had given him in the middle of the night when he had first held her hand, full of electricity and surprise and a burning desire to be closer, to be more. It was none of those, only a distant echo. It was to reassure him, to try and help him even though she was the one needing help. Always putting others first, she smiled up at him, hand clenched tightly to his shirt. The fire was dying, the embers barely hanging on, and he felt himself growing cold.

"Who would have guessed?" She finally whispered, sagging further into his embrace as her breaths grew shorter, more desperate. "The Page of Mind and the Heir of Heart. As opposite as opposites can be, and here I am dying in your arms." She coughed then, blood trickling down as her voice grew quieter, her brow furrowed. The hair on the back of Ben's neck prickled, as if someone was there watching him, but all he could stare at was Ally, watching as she began speaking. "Oh, how you have fallen, oh Lucifer, son of the morning. How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations..."

In the corridors, Luke and Ivan were sprinting in the direction Ally had sent them. Suddenly, a voice began speaking, and Ivan exchanged a glance with Luke. Wasn't that Ally's voice?

"No!" Ben shouted, holding her tighter, willing her to stay alive. "You're not dying! Ally, please!"

But she was continuing, eyes falling shut as she mumbled. "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds..."

Luke and Ivan, who had just made it into the room, covered in blood and sweat and oil, watched in terror as they saw Emma standing, pulling the sword from her side and turning to Ben.

"I will be like the Most High..." Her hand dropped once more, falling to the sheets and further staining them with blood. He could barely understand her, barely comprehend what she was trying to say. "Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the pit.. ."

"Ally, please." Ben begged, voice just this side of a whisper. "I can't do this without you."

Luke's eyes widened, running up the steps with Ivan close behind. "Ben, look out!"

Ben looked, slow, as if someone was pushing back against him, resisting the motion, but it was too late: Emma was sending Ally’s sword flying at him, tip of it pointed straight at his back, straight through him. Time seemed to stop. He froze, looking down at the end of the blade sticking out of his stomach, then looked at Ally one last time.

He knew this was it. He knew that the sword that had just sliced clean through him would end him, but he wasn't afraid. He felt no pain. He looked down at Ally and knew that he had failed, had failed all the plans they had. He supposed to ascend with her, he was going to fight and learn to use his powers alongside this girl who knew nothing but empathy and optimism and passion. He would be the logic behind her motivation, the scheme behind her attack. But none of that would happen now, and he knew it. How ironic, that he was to fall by her blade.

He felt no pain, no sadness. Only a regret for what could have been. He took Ally's hand in his, fingers trembling as he felt himself fading into the void he knew waited for him on the other side.

"Please." He whispered one more time, then fell forward, body sliding off the edge of the bed, hand still grasping tightly to Ally's now still fingers.

"Emma!" Ivan shouted, throwing one of the knives. They finally reached the top, running across the platform. She dodged it easily, grabbing her own sword and turning her damaged jetpack back on before flying upwards to the hole in the ceiling. Ivan threw two more knives, both of which missed and went tumbling back down to the darkness below.

"The Heir has died!" Emma's voice echoed back down to them, evil and malicious and full of hate. "The Page is dead! The line of heart has ended in this timeline!" With another laugh, her voice faded away, and Luke and Ivan were left standing in the circle, staring at a bloody square of stone.

The bright red contrasted brilliantly against the deep green, giving it an almost ethereal glow in the dim lantern light. There was a steady pool growing below her, and they saw another one on the floor on the other side of the bed.

"She..." Luke trailed off, eyes wide. His heart was frozen, but pounding in his throat, yet full of some cold, heavy metal. "She's not..." Ivan was motionless, mouth set in a tight line as he stared forward.

Slowly, they watched as the bed began glowing, just a little pink glow at each of the corners. Luke frowned, but before he could approach the bed, it burst into flames.

The fire was red and deep and flicking quickly, as a wildfire would burn on a dry forest. The flames grew higher and hotter, enveloping the bed quickly and completely. And out of the center of the fire, a body rose.

The body was glowing brightly, flames extending from each of their limbs. Just as suddenly as they appeared, they were extinguished, leaving the room in darkness before Luke and Ivan's eyes could adjust once more.

Luke blinked a few times, focusing on the floating form above the still bloody bed. The figure was wearing dark pink clothes, head covered by a hood, but he could still see the bright red hair underneath it.

"Ally?" He asked quietly, voice echoing strangely in the cavern. 

The figure whipped around, glowing pink eyes searching the room. As soon as she saw them, the figure seemed to deflate, and she landed solidly back on the ground, stumbling a bit. Ivan and Luke immediately ran over to her, Ivan helping her stand up straight again.

"What the hell happened?" She groaned, holding her head, eyes now back to normal. "And why do I have this windsock on my head?"

Luke glanced to Ivan, who said simply. "You, well, you had an encounter with Emma. And she came out on the winning side. Apparently, you dying caused you to ascend to the god tier."

Ally froze, eyes widening, and she spun around, pulling aside one of the sheets before clasping her hands over her mouth.

On the ground was Ben, sword and all. She took a faltering step backwards, Ivan catching her once again.

His face was relaxed, almost peaceful, and that made her angrier somehow. How could someone so good, so pure, be ripped out of this world in an instant? How could a shitty person like Emma still exist and Ben couldn't? It wasn't fair.

"It's not fair." She whispered, and Luke put a hand on her shoulder. "She keeps killing the people who deserve to live. It's not fair."

"Ally, calm down." Luke started, but Ally spun on him.

"No, I will not calm down." Her newly acquired god tier outfit rustled gently with the motion, her hair flying wildly around her face, as if in contradiction. "This has gone on too long. I'm done trying to sympathize with her, I'm done trying to save her. I'm done defending the girl I knew. She's not Emma anymore." 

She turned and looked to the sky, barely peeking through the hole in the top of the cavern, eyes narrowed threateningly. The troll's ship was now passing overhead, casting a dark shadow. "We're following them to the next session. And we're going to finally put an end to this."

 

\- - - - -

 

In the end, they wrapped Ben in a sheet and left him there. They had no other choice, they couldn't carry the dead weight with what little fuel they had left. Ally was able to fly now, so she poured what little was left in her jetpack into theirs, and together, they flew up and out of the cavern.

Fransprite was nowhere to be found, and neither was the tower. Prospit was in ruins: buildings and streets covered in fallen carapaces, smoking pieces of what was left of an eternally beautiful kingdom. They passed overhead with mouths clamped shut, no one willing to talk about what had happened. The troll's ship was much further ahead, heading towards yet another crack in the sky.

Silently, they descended into what seemed to be an old army barrack, finding plenty of supplies for the journey ahead of them. They refueled the jetpacks, ate as much as they could, and Ally still wouldn't look Luke in the eye. Just before they were going to head out, Luke grabbed her roughly, pulling her into his chest while a surprised grunt left her lips.

"It's going to be okay." He squeezed her tightly, smiling weakly at Ivan as he came to put a hand on each of their shoulders. "I know this sounds terrible coming from the doom player, but we'll be alright."

Ally finally relaxed, arms flying around both of their shoulders and pulling them to her as she sobbed into his shirt. They held onto each other, finally mourning their fallen friends, and crying out in fear of what was yet to come.

 

 

"So how long are we going to be in this one?" Luke asked as they trailed behind the troll's ship once more, following it into yet another crack.

Ivan seemed to ponder for a moment, then sighed. "Impossible to tell at this point. Once we get inside, it'll be easier. For some reason, I'm having some trouble deciphering what I'm seeing."

Ally exchanged a half smile with Luke. Since they had all met up, Ivan had slowly been slipping into a more human-like speech pattern. He had especially taken after Fran's habit of drawing out some words.

"Well, let's get ready then." She sighed, looking ahead to where the ship had just slid through the crack. She watched the technicolor lightning crackle around the entrance, snapping and disappearing just as quickly as it appeared to jump across the entrance. 

One by one, they followed inside, this time adjusting easier to the weightless feeling that came with crossing into paradox space. Ally shivered, missing the familiar weight of having a jetpack on her back. It had helped ground her, keep her mind in the present. Yet here she was, flying through nothing, and dressed in clothes that looked strangely similar to pajamas.

"I believe it's a God Tier outfit." Ivan had told her as they had wrapped up their mourning back on Prospit. "By dying there, you ascended. Since your dream self was still alive, I'm assuming that must have been your Sacrificial Slab, not our Quest Beds." He gave a sad sort of smile, turning to look up at the sky. Ally had pulled her hood back up, finding a bit of comfort in the warmth.

"Least it could have done is been a color that doesn't clash with my hair."

"Hey, Ally?"

Ally looked back ahead, pulling out of her memories and glancing at Luke, who seemed hesitant to ask a question. She frowned a bit, staying a safe distance away from him. Since she had gotten these pajamas, it was easier to tell what people were feeling, and she wasn't sure if she liked it.

"What's up?" She asked, wondering why he was chewing on his lip like that.

"Not to, uh, bring up your death or anything again..." He started, and she immediately sighed. So that was why. He continued, "But, while Ivan and I were running to get you, you were kind of talking before you died? Do you remember what you were saying? Because it didn't make a lot of sense."

Ally snorted, flying a bit in a zig-zag pattern. "Luke, I was dying. I doubt it was anything important."

"No, I have to agree with Luke." Ivan frowned, turning back to look at her as well. "It seemed very coherent, very purposeful."

She frowned, flying closer to them now. "What was I saying?"

Luke glanced at Ivan, then answered, "It seemed like a poem almost. But you said something about Lucifer, and about ascending, so I think it was a bible verse. But I thought you weren't religious?"

Ally stared at him for a minute, then the realization hit. "Oh, no, I'm not religious. But that's why I said that verse." Ivan gave her a confused look, and she shook her head. "No, not in like a 'dying last rites' kind of thing. Wow, this is weird." She furrowed her brow. "When Emma and I were really young, we talked to this person online who convinced us that mind control and mind reading was real. Like, they could make us fall asleep from where ever they were, so it freaked us out, you know? So we made them teach us how to prevent mind control, or someone reading our mind."

"And they did?" Ivan asked quietly, and Ally nodded.

"They did. It seemed like they thought it was super important we learned how to prevent it, especially Emma." She snorted. "Funny." She looked back up to them. "Anyways, they told us the best way to prevent it was to put kind of a mental block up. The easiest way to do this was to start repeating a phrase or sentence or song in your head over and over. I was gonna use my favorite song, but they said if you picked something that seemed so unlike you that it wouldn't make sense for you to be repeating it, it would work better. So, me, being the nonreligious one, picked a bible verse. Emma used a poem."

"So why would you have been repeating that right before you died?" Luke asked, and Ally shrugged.

"Dunno. I guess I thought someone was trying to read my mind." She frowned once again. "I guess Emma's wasn't working. Maybe that's how the troll got to her."

"The tactic you described is widely known on my planet, though few can practice it with such success." Ivan muttered, staring darkly at the ship ahead. "I can only imagine what troll was trying to teach you mind prevention tricks. Maybe myself from the future?"

"Wait, troll?" Ally asked, eyes wide. "I thought they were human. I mean, they never specified, but still."

Ivan looked at her for a moment, then raised his eyebrows. "Perhaps, though unlikely. But I commend you on your ability to resist mind control. Who knows how poorly this session would have gone if it was you the troll was able to control. Heart players are vastly more dangerous than life players, especially when they are heirs."

Luke made a face that clearly said he didn't believe Ivan, but Ally looked away, staring instead in front of them. She drifted back a bit, ignoring the debate that had started over which aspect was the most dangerous. That had become their favorite of debate topics.

Later that night, as they stopped to sleep, Luke had whispered, "Why that verse?"

Ivan was snoring softly, so Ally turned to him, and his eyes were illuminated by the ground he lay on, the rainbow colors making him look much, much younger. It was rare to see Luke like this: open and worried and unabashedly hiding his feelings.

She looked away, unable to look in his eyes any longer. They looked too much like Ben's.

"Not sure." She whispered. "Picked at random."

"Don't lie to me."

His voice cracked on the last word, and she looked over at him again, this time turning her whole body. His voice was strained as he continued, "I've lost one friend to an evil alien, had two friends killed, and my half son kind of friend just died in front of me. I should have been able to stop it, but I didn't, because I believed that it would all just work out like it always does. Don't you dare lie to me, Ally. Not now, when everything else is so fucked up."

She swallowed hard, reaching a hand out to brush at his cheek. He closed his eyes, pulling away and looking back upwards. "Don't lie to me." He pleaded quietly, and she nodded, retracting her hand back to pull it close to her chest.

"When I was really young, my brother and I couldn't afford much. Still couldn’t, but it was worse then." She whispered into the darkness, choosing instead to stare at the lights changing on the ground. "He used to read me stories before bed, but all we had was a bible. Neither of us believed in it, we just treated it like any other story book. But whenever we got to that part, he always skipped over it. Wouldn't read any part about the devil falling. I asked him why once, but he said he couldn't read it without crying."

Luke shifted next to her, watching her again, but she stayed focused on the road, eyes unfocused as she remembered. 

"He never cried, not ever. Being the stupid eight year old I was, I asked him why this part made him cry, and he said it was because it reminded him of bad dreams he had as a kid, about trying to fight a monster. He had nightmares, just like I used to. He used to dream that there was a big bad monster out there, trying to control the universe. All of the universes. Him and his friends tried to fight her, but everyone kept dying, and he couldn't do anything to stop the monster. So, as a last ditch effort, he broke the ground." Ally curled inwards on herself, squeezing her eyes shut. "He said he used to dream about it every night when he was little. Every night they’d fight, and every time he would have to grab what little he could and break the ground to save everyone. He refused to read about the devil falling, because he didn't believe the devil could be stopped. So, when I had to pick something to repeat, I chose that. The devil failing and falling and being banished. Because I thought deep down that if I tried hard enough, believed hard enough, I could stop the devil and save my brother from those nightmares. I could be the one that rose up to stop his bad dreams."

"Ally..." Luke whispered, but Ally just turned over, facing away from him.

"I did it to save him. But now, I've ascended and everyone is dead. Maybe the devil can't be stopped."

Her words hung in the still air, making Luke frown. She curled on herself once more, then was silent. Luke looked back upwards into the darkness, trying to find some sort of reassurance from whoever was out there that they could make it.

Darkness and silence were his only replies.


	3. Ivan: Resurrect ==>

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your name is Ivanos Noster, you're 7 and a half sweeps old, you've been in more timelines than you can count, and almost all of your friends are dead. You decide that there's something that needs to be done about that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's part three! sorry it took so long, i must have edited this about forty times, ugh.
> 
> shoutout to sp8derbite for the OCs in this chapter!
> 
> hold onto your seats, this is where things start to get interesting (:

As they saw the bright red ship drawing nearer to the crack ahead of it, they kicked on their jetpacks, flying dutifully behind it. The cracks were growing larger now, spreading through more and more of paradox space.

“What do you think is causing it?” Luke asked, looking at the new cracks above their head. They stretched on for a few dozen feet, although the only thing you could see through them were the flashing colors. It reminded him of a disco ball, or a glitching video game.

“Obviously someone very powerful.” Ivan answered, a worried look crossing his face. “I should hope we don’t have to meet them any time soon.” Luke and Ally nodded, instead focusing on the ship ahead. 

The tell-tale crackle sounded, surrounding the ship and pulling it through the crack in a colorful blast. Ally sighed, “Let’s roll, boys!” They zoomed forward, following as quickly as they could.

As soon as they entered, Luke felt as if he had been punched in the gut. He dipped in the air, only to be caught by Ally before he could fall any lower. Waves of nausea were rolling over him, dark visions in his head.

“Luke, what’s wrong?” Ivan asked, coming up on his other side. 

Luke looked up, eyes unfocused as he watched the visions. “Everyone...this is a doomed timeline. Everyone here is going to die. There’s nothing we can do.” In flashes of colors, he watched the people fall, helpless to do anything.

Ally looked quickly to Ivan, “There has to be something! We’ve always been able to help!”

Ivan grimaced. “If he’s having such a strong reaction, I doubt we can do much. I myself am not seeing much hope for these players.”

Ally frowned at him, then turned away, only to stop mid-flight. “What the hell?”

Luke finally looked up, mouth dropping open as he finally saw what was in front of them.

They were in Ally’s planet. Fire was dancing all across the land below them, sending heat and sparks flying their way. Dark green rocks jutted out of the ground as paths and walkways, reflecting the light all around. He remembered the fields of flames from before, when he had first met her on her planet. But that wasn’t what caused Ally to stop.

There was another Ally, just ahead of them, except this Ally looked much older and much more dangerous. She hadn’t ascended, as shown by the jetpack and her clothes, but she looked stronger, like she’d been fighting for longer. Just behind her was Emma, their Emma, zooming around on her jetpack and having a fierce sword battle with the older Ally.

Their Ally took one look at Emma before her face twisted with anger and she flew forward. Luke’s eyes widened, reaching out a hand and shouting, “Ally, wait!”

Older Ally turned at the shout of her name, and that was all the distraction Emma needed to plunge her sword deep into her back and straight through her jetpack. Instantly, older Ally began falling from the sky, and Luke and Ivan zoomed down after her.

They caught her a few feet before the ground, but Ivan grimaced, looking up to where Luke stood above him. “She’s gone.” Luke swore, turning back up to look at Ally.

Ally had continued her straight path for Emma, landing one solid punch on her face that nearly knocked her from the sky. Just as Ally had accessed her sword and was preparing to swing at her, a deep blue flash flew through the atmosphere with a ripple that knocked Ally back tumbling into the air. As if it were some sort of beacon, Emma turned, flying back up to the ship. Of course, Ally took off after her.

“Someone stop her!”

Luke and Ivan spun, his stomach plummeting as they saw the girl sprinting towards them. She continued running, pointing. “Stop her before she gets into that ship! They’ll kill her!”

Ivan seemed frozen in place, so Luke nodded, taking off into the air and shouting after Ally. “Ally! Come back, you can’t take them all on by yourself!”

Ally whipped around, red hair shining even brighter in the light of the fires. Luke yelled again, drawing nearer, “Ally, come on! You know you can’t take them all!” He was only 20 yards away, but the ship’s engines were too loud to speak normally.

She seemed to debate with herself, looking back up at the ship before turning to fly over to him. “Fine.” She shivered a bit, directing them back towards the ground where Ivan and the new girl stood bent over the body. “Man, it’s weird seeing yourself killed by your best friend.”

“Ex-best friend.” Luke corrected her, then shut his mouth at her glare. They landed back on the ground, coming to where the girl was bent over the older Ally on the ground. Ally stayed a ways back, looking at the body with a mixture of terror and confusion on her face.

“She was trying to help.” The girl was saying to Ivan, shutting the body’s eyes. “She learned that what she was doing was wrong, and rebelled against the control the troll had over her. That’s why the troll and her new minion came back to stop her. Because she was trying to help us.”

“This Ally was under the control of the troll?” Luke asked gently, noting how Ivan was still silent, staring in shock at the girl. When the girl looked up, he realized why.

“What the hell.” Ally wheezed, stepping back even further from the group. “How many different times are we going to find you?”

The girl frowned, and Ivan finally spoke up, voice tight. “Forgive us if we seem rude. It’s just…” He allowed himself to smile in relief, stoic composure cracking for the first time since Ben had passed away. “We have found you twice only to have you ripped away from us again. We can’t believe you’re alive, Fran.”

She finally stood, a soft smile on her face as she looked back at Ivan. “It’s hard to believe you’re all alive as well.” Finally, Fran’s face cracked into the grin they all knew, and she jumped forward, wrapping her arms around Ivan. “Oh, gosh, I can’t believe you’re all really here. And so young!”

“You’re one to talk.” Luke snorted, coming forward to hug her as soon as she let go of Ivan. “How old are you in this timeline?”

“Turned 17 three weeks ago.” She answered proudly. “We’ve been here for three years.”

“Three years?” Ally mumbled, looking around at their surroundings. The fires here seemed exactly as she remembered them on her own planet. She still stood back, refusing to go near the body. “What the hell have you been doing for three years?”

Fran regarded her with suspicion, narrowing her eyes. “Say your passage.”

Ally’s head whipped back around. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me.” Fran’s voice was tougher, showing just how much had changed this young girl in three years. “I need to know you’re not being controlled by the troll, too. Say your passage.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Ally shouted, “You all just saw me go after Emma--”

“Say it!” Fran shouted, leaving everyone in a shocked silence. They all froze, and she added quietly, “All of my friends are dead in this timeline because of that troll. So forgive me if I don’t want to see you all die. Again. Say it.”

Taken aback, Ally nodded, swallowing thickly. “How you have fallen, O Lucifer, son of the morning. How you are cut down to the ground, you who have weakened the nations.” The hair on the back of Luke’s neck stood up, the verse sending him right back to the last time he had heard it. It was almost worse, hearing it now in the light of day. “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the most high.” Fran was still, hand resting on the weapon tied to her hip. Ivan couldn’t take his eyes off of her, as if he still couldn’t believe she was really here. “Yet you will be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the pits.” Ally was quiet as she finished, and everyone waited until Fran nodded.

“Sorry I made you say it.” She shrugged, glancing not so subtly down at the body on the ground. “I just had to be sure. No offense, but having a heart player unable to refuse mind control kind of did a number on us. On me.”

“None taken.” Ally whispered, looking away once again. Ivan cleared his throat, setting a gentle hand on Fran’s shoulder.

“Fran, do you think you could tell us what all has happened in these three years?” He asked. “It might allow us to help you.”

“Ivan, we can’t.” Luke said quickly and quietly, glancing quickly at Fran. “I told you, this is--”

“A doomed timeline.” Fran finished for him, nodding solemnly. “We knew it from the moment we entered. You were the one who told us.” She glanced behind her, from the direction she had been coming from. “You knew as soon as we crossed over. But none of us believed you. We thought you were just being dramatic again. I’ve never regretted anything more than I regret not believing you.” She faced them again, hands clenched tightly together as she continued.

“We knew something was off as soon as we entered. While we didn’t believe you, we knew we were playing the game wrong. Alec was trying his best to follow the directions the walk through gave us, but Ally was adamant that we needed to do other things. So, we spent a year going to our individual planets and doing the tasks. Ivan and I spent the time on our planets trying to figure out what all had gone wrong. At the end of the first year, she finally snapped.” She looked down to the body, a twisted grimace on her face. “I don’t think she meant to do it, honestly. But she and Emma were arguing about the game, and her sword was in her hand--” Fran cut herself off, and Ivan’s hand tightened on her shoulder.

“Ally...That Ally killed your Emma?” Luke asked, and Fran nodded.

“She killed Ivan a week later as well, and that was when we found out about the troll. When we all confronted her, she killed Ivan and kidnapped her brother because she needed him to tell her where the Sacrificial Slabs were located.” She smiled sadly at them, “Alec was always good at finding things. He knew practically everything about the game. Once he found out they were related--accidentally of course, he’s always stumbling into things he shouldn’t have--she exploited that relationship to use him.”

“Where’s your Alec now?” Ally interrupted her story, finally coming forward with a steely glint in her eyes. “And your Luke?”

“You just killed him.” Fran growled before she could stop herself. She sighed. “God, sorry. You didn’t. She did. She was fighting your Emma that came through the crack and destroyed our home in the crossfire while Luke was still inside. Alec, I’m assuming, is aboard the ship, no doubt a prisoner. Like I said, she was trying to use him to find the slabs so she could ascend. Emma’s probably using him for the same thing now.” Fran frowned. “I don’t know if it was the same in your game, but our slabs are very hard to find. No one’s been able to.”

“Seeing as you have a dark Heart player running around exploiting people and their emotions like that,” Ivan told her, turning to give an ‘I told you so’ look to Luke, “I don’t blame the game. We must find them before Emma has the chance to. I am glad this Ally was at least able to rebel before the troll could have full control of the heir.”

“Heir?” Fran gave Ivan a confused look. “Who has the Heir class?”

“Uh, I do.” Ally gave a short wave, gesturing to her pajamas. “I’m the Heir of Heart.”

Fran cocked her head. “In my timeline, you were the Prince of Heart.”

“Prince? Isn’t that a male only class?” Luke looked to Ivan for confirmation, but Fran shrugged.

“I don’t think it has to be. As far as we’ve found out, only Muse and Lord are absolutely gender-exclusive classes.” Fran looked to Ivan, “Maybe Ally was an exception. She was always kind of all over the place anyways.”

“This is the second time I’ve had someone call me a different class.” Ally told them, giving the body on the ground a weird look. “In those weird dreams I used to have, with the phone calls, the dude called me a knight once. And I had a, uh,” Ally paused, frowning a bit, “A dream that I was a bard. On Derse. Why does it keep switching?” Luke gave her a look. Obviously she was holding something back.

Fran’s eyes lit up, just like they used to when she and Ivan found out something particularly useful. Luke felt a nostalgic chill, but she was already talking.

“Those must have been doomed timeline versions of you. Maybe because of the different classes, that was why the troll could affect you. But now that you’re an heir--because heirs are so much stronger in their aspect than the other ones--the troll can’t affect you!”

“And it’s because of that that the troll went after Emma in our timeline.” Ivan continued, watching Ally with a strange look on his face as he caught on. “The prince and knight timelines failed, so the game created a new way to save itself from yet another scratch and force the troll to find a new way to try and defeat us. The bard timeline you mentioned must have failed as well.”

“The game just keeps on scratching.” Fran agreed, looking up to the cracks in the sky. “Scratches, again and again, all with different versions of Ally. But why?”

Luke’s head was reeling, unable to keep up with all that was being said. He really should have paid attention all those times that Alec tried to explain how the game worked. Now that he thought about it, maybe he should have listened to Alec more often. Wasn’t he the one who first caught on to Emma being dangerous?

Suddenly Fran’s eyes widened, looking up at the sky. “Okay, we’ve got to go.” She grabbed the jetpack off of the ground, strapping it to herself. Ivan and Luke followed her gaze, freezing as she saw the ship turning to face them, guns popping out of different spots on the front of the ship.

“Shit, is she going to fire at us?” Luke took a step back, already grabbing for the switch on the jetpack. 

Fran managed a laugh, “Oh, Luke. I missed you, Captain Obvious. You were so much funnier when you were younger.” She winked at him before taking off, everyone quickly following into the sky. “Come on, we’ve got to get out of here.”

“Where can we go, though?” Luke asked, pulling up beside her close enough that the heat from her jetpack warmed his arms. “You just said this Ally destroyed your home.”

“We’ll go through the cracks then.” Ally offered when Fran didn’t have an answer. “We’ll find some reality she hasn’t been to yet, hide in there.”

“What, and doom them to be destroyed, too? If you haven’t noticed, people around us tend to keep dropping dead.” Luke countered hotly, and Ally glared at him. “We don’t have much of a choice, do we?” Luke turned away, and Ally took that as a sign to lead them on, flying quickly ahead to a crack near them. Everyone followed, Ivan constantly glancing back over his shoulder to give them updates on the ship. 

“The guns have been put away, but they’re following. I see a few of those robots ready to launch.”

“We can fight off a few robots.” Ally called back. “We just need to lose the ship.” She turned quickly then, directing them all to the crack nearest them. They entered, the colors whipping by them even faster than before. Ally was looking around them, as if she could tell which one they wouldn’t be found in. Again, Luke’s stomach was twisting on itself. As they neared a certain crack, his stomach dropped further, and he knew they were headed for another doomed timeline. 

Whether it was their fault or not, he didn’t know.

They flew through the crack, Luke shaking his head after the sounds of the sparks faded away. As he looked around, he began frowning. Why was this planet so dark? Were they underground or something?

“Another doomed timeline.” Ivan whispered, and Fran looked at him in worry. His eyes were unfocused, gazing around them. “I just...I see a stillness. I am amazed Luke hasn’t turned around and flown back yet.”

“Oh, I’m close, don’t worry.” He huffed, still looking around. “Is this...is this their Skaia?”

“Everything’s so dark.” Ally whispered, and Fran nodded.

“Something must be very wrong in their session. Maybe a player gone grimdark, or an imbalance in players, or they’re missing a space or time player. Who knows?” Fran tightened her straps. “Whatever it is, it’s giving me the creeps.”

“We won’t be here long.” Ally told them, moving to land near a crumbling building. “We’ll just hide for a few days, recuperate, and then we’ll leave. We could use the rest.”

Fran landed a few feet back from Ally, still watching her carefully. “You’re different than what I remember. A lot more serious.”

Ally shrugged. “Well, the game needs me to be kind of serious right now, doesn’t it? Not a lot of room for happy players in a bunch of doomed timelines.”

“Sis?”

Everyone spun, turning to look to the building they had just landed in front of. As Luke’s eyes landed on the person creeping around the corner, a tingle crept up his back. It was the same feeling he had when he had first spotted the other timeline’s Ally. Two more faces appeared, and he swallowed thickly. All of their timelines were doomed. All of them. Doomed to never leave this session and never advance. He had to look away.

Ally was frozen, staring with wide eyes. “I...Bro? What?”

Fran frowned. “That’s not Alec.”

“No, like...my real life brother.” Ally’s voice was just above a whisper, having a stare-down with the tan boy now stepping out from the doorway. “Like, the one that raised me.”

“That can’t be possible.” The boy in the doorway was saying, giving her a narrow eyed look. “Because you’re the sister that raised me. Except...younger.” Then it seemed to dawn on his face, and Luke and Fran spoke at the same time.

“Another scratched timeline.”

The boy stared at Ally, obviously trying to assess if this was really happening. Ally was biting her lip, and Luke could almost feel the panic welling up inside of her, no matter how hard she was trying to keep a hold on her emotions.

“Who scratched?” Ally demanded, whipping around to look at Fran. “How did my brother end up here? And why’s he so young?”

“We must have scratched, just like with Ben.” Ivan told her, still staring wide-eyed at the boy. He lowered his voice, orange eyes flicking cautiously to Ally. “I get a feeling they are not going to be advancing much farther.” Ally looked at him, then spun back around, sprinting over to the boy to wrap him in a hug.

The boy flinched a bit, as if he wasn’t sure how he should respond.

“I know you’re not really him.” Luke heard her say, voice barely carrying over to him as she squeezed the boy tighter. “But can you just, like, pretend for a second?”

Instantly, he relaxed, wrapping his arms back around her. “Yeah. Yeah, sure.” They held it for a moment, and when Ally pulled back wiping her eyes, he rolled his at her. “Calm down, like that was a really heartfelt reunion.”

“Shut up.” She mumbled, earning a smirk from him. She shoved his shoulder lightly, then looked to the people in the doorway who had yet to move or say anything. “So who are your friends? And why have I never been introduced?”

His smirk grew bigger, and he turned to introduce himself and his friends to the rest of the group still standing behind Ally. “I’m Ambrose. The small blonde one is Tess, and the dark-haired one is Addie.” He glanced to Ally. “We’ve got two more inside, but they haven’t been talking to each other much lately.”

“Eh, they’ll come around. Time heals all wounds, or whatever.” She grinned, then gestured to her group. “I’m Ambrose’s sister, Ally. The cool alien is Ivan, and the chick next to him is Fran. Mister broody-pants over there is our resident doom player, Luke.”

Luke watched them carefully. Their tan skin matched nearly identically, facial features impressions of each other. Where she was covered in freckles, he only had a few scattered across his face, just like Alec. In fact, he looked a lot like Alec. Their body types were very similar, so similar that Luke almost couldn’t look anymore, and it had nothing to do with him being able to see the boy’s death flash in front of his eyes every other second.

“Are you the only one that’s ascended?” Ambrose asked, tugging at her t-shirt. 

“Why? Jealous of these sweet pajamas?” She grinned, and he rolled his eyes.

“I’m only asking because we have a heart player, too. I was wondering if this is what she’d look like if she ascended.”

“Each player’s pajamas, as Ally calls them, are different depending on their class.” Ivan interrupted, and Ambrose’s eyes widened slightly as he listened. He seemed to be taking the fact that Ivan was an alien rather well. “While similar in color, they would ultimately have a different design.”

“That’s so cool.” The blonde girl from the doorway said, and Luke finally turned to look at Tess, ignoring the continual pain in his gut. She looked sweet, and Ally was smiling so hard that Luke didn’t have the heart to tell her what he was seeing.

“So, what are you doing here?” The other girl, Addie, finally spoke up, stepping a bit further out of the doorway. 

Ally glanced at Fran, obviously not knowing what to say. Fran smiled warily at her and then answered, “We’ve been getting in a lot of fights with a bad guy lately. We were hoping by hopping into a different session, we would be able to get a break.” She glanced at Ivan quickly, avoiding Ally’s questioning gaze. Luke swallowed harshly. Of course, Ally would be able to tell what they were all feeling right now. “Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll be able to stay very long.”

“What?” Ally frowned at the same time as Ambrose asked, “Why?”

Ivan and Fran shared another glance, and when Ally looked his way instead, Luke looked to his feet instead. The bad feeling in his gut was getting stronger. No doubt their end was coming very, very soon.

“We had that thing we needed to find.” Ivan answered quickly, and Fran added on, “Yeah, your other brother, remember?”

Ally’s mouth opened and closed a few times, and when Luke finally looked up, her eyes widened with understanding. _Shit._ Of course she was able to get a perfect read on him.

“You should come with us!” She spun to face Ambrose again, grabbing onto his arm tightly. “Come on, it’ll be fun! You and me, hanging out like we used to do when I was little. Or when you were little.”

“Ally, come on.” Luke started quietly, but she ignored him.

“We can go together!” She pleaded, but before she could get another sentence out, shouting was heard from inside the old house. The two girls turned, listening, then jumped out of the way when a shorter person went running by, yelling something they couldn’t understand. Another girl, much taller and more muscular than the first, went sprinting after her, both heading in the opposite direction of where everyone was standing.

“Shit, I knew they’d fight again.” Ambrose muttered, looking after them as Tess and Addie turned to follow. He looked at Ally, almost apologetic. “I have to go stop them, it could get bad.”

“Good, because we need to be heading out.” Fran tried, but one glare from Ally stopped her in her tracks.

“Say your goodbyes, Ally.” Ivan’s voice was low, eyes narrowed. He wasn’t going to let Ally’s anger stop him. “We need to leave. He has things he needs to take care of.”

“No!” Ally’s grip on her brother tightened, but he pulled his arm away.

“Look, it was really good to see you.” He said, backing away a bit and glancing over his shoulder to his retreating friends. “Like, really good. But I really do need to go help them. It’s been bad before, but I’m worried…” He watched Ally for a minute, a confused look on his face. “I’ll see you again, won’t I? You can hop back over once you find our other brother.”

Luke stepped forward, grabbing Ally’s arm before she could say anything. Obviously, the boy hadn’t picked up on why they all were wary of this place. “Yeah, of course, dude. We’ll come back to see you. Go ahead and take care of your friends.” With a smile, Ambrose nodded, waving another goodbye to Ally before taking off after his friends. Luke sighed, wishing he could go back to when he had been that oblivious to everything. This game had really taken a toll in the short amount of time they’d been here. Now he understood why this Fran was acting the way she was.

“No!” Ally shouted, lunging to go after him, but Luke pulled her back again. “Luke, get the fuck off of me!”

“Ally, no, he needs to go!” Luke told her, grabbing both her arms now. “We can’t do anything, they’re all doomed anyways.”

“You should have let me try!” She whipped around, eyes bright with anger. “You should have let me try to help him! You two keep fucking holding me back when I try to get shit done! Isn’t this what the Bard of Doom was supposed to do? Destroy fate? God! You’re just as bad as Emma!”

Her shout echoed in the silence, and Luke took a step back from her. His hands immediately dropped their hold, Ally shaking the wrinkles out of her shirt while sadness radiated outwards from her. Ivan’s eyes were wide, clearly remembering when he had held her back from helping Alec attack Emma. Where his gaze was filled with concern, Fran’s eyes were narrowed, already reaching for her weapon. 

“Ally, say your verse.”

“Fuck off, Fran.” Ally grumbled, but there was no venom in it, just defeat. Luke watched as she deflated, turning to watch as her brother’s figure disappeared around the bend. They were quiet, Ivan mumbling something to Fran about how Ally didn’t mean it.

“They’re all doomed?” Ally whispered, and Luke swallowed the lump in his throat.

“Well, not all of them. Three will live in a null session, I think.” Ally turned to look at him, hope in her eyes, but Luke only shook his head. “No. Your brother isn’t one.”

Ally turned away again, kicking at the dead grass on the ground. “You were right. Everyone around us keeps dying. Maybe we can’t fix fate. Or change it. Maybe we’ll just keep destroying everything.” Luke bit his lip, looking to the ground as well. Was this the bad luck of a doom player?

“There is some hope, Ally.” Fran told them quietly, still not moving from where she was next to Ivan. “There’s a reason the troll was trying to get rid of you. You’re the reason the troll doesn’t succeed in her timeline.” Ally looked up, jaw set firmly as Fran continued. “I didn’t get the chance to tell you, but Luke and I figured it out in my timeline. She sent her minion and Emma to get rid of you in any timeline to guarantee that she wouldn’t be stopped. But obviously, you haven’t been killed yet. You’re still the reason we’re going to win. And on top of that, there’s another heart player already in the alpha timeline to help you, that she doesn’t even know about. We can beat this.”

Ally was quiet, then she whispered, “Sure. Whatever.” She turned away from them, pulling up her hood to hide her face. He knew that meant she was still upset. Years of online chatter and snapchat had tuned him in to how she thought, but now he was lost on how to help her. Luke shot Ivan a look, meaning to ask for advice, but the troll was already focusing on Fran once more.

The journey up to the cracks this time was much quieter than the others. Ivan and Fran were at the front, leading the way up into the darker sky and whispering amongst themselves, and Luke could see Ally out of the corner of his eye. She was turning her head every which way, switching back and forth on which side of his she was flying on. Slowly, the feeling in his gut faded, and he knew that her searching for any sign of her brother was now pointless.

As she zoomed by him once more, he grabbed the back of her shirt, yanking her back to his right side. She spun to shout something, no doubt, but he stopped her before she could even start.

“Stop looking for him. It’s already passed. It’s done.”

She closed her mouth instantly, and Luke wanted to kick himself as the tears reached her eyes once again. Her emotions were all over the place, putting him on edge. After another silent moment, she asked, “How did it happen?”

He sighed, looking down at the dead landscape below them, “Ally, you don’t want to--”

“Tell me how my brother died.” She pushed, voice just this side of desperate. “Please. I just...I need to know. He wasn’t in pain, was he?”

He looked over to her again, baffled that this is what she wanted to know. Her expression grew worried at his silence, and he rushed out, “No, no. He wasn’t hurting. Just...a time mishap. It was all very quick, I think. He hardly felt anything.”

Her eyes narrowed a bit, cocking her head after a moment and asking, “Is that why you didn’t stop him?”

He physically drew back, crinkling his nose as he told her, “We’re not going over this again--”

“Give me a straight answer, Luke!” Ally rounded in front of him, stopping him mid-air. Fran and Ivan paused ahead of them, looking back with confusion on their faces at her change in volume. Luke and Ally both paused in the air, staring each other down. She was looking him dead in the eyes, unyielding and absolutely pissed off at him. He could feel the heat in her gaze as he looked back, thrown off as she growled out, “You asked me not to lie to you, and I haven’t. It’s about time you returned the favor.”

Luke glanced up at Ivan, but Ally interrupted his line of sight, drawing closer to him. “Why are you so scared to do anything? Why won’t you just try and do something? Are you really that scared of everything that’s happened? Are you blaming yourself for everyone dying? Because a fat lot that’s gonna do.” She flew closer to him, narrowing the space between them to only a few inches. “Stop being so afraid of it all. I know you’re fucking terrified, I can feel it. You need to learn to control that fear and do something constructive with it.”

“Like you know me so well.” Luke scoffed before he could stop himself, chest contracting tightly. Ally backed up a bit, eyes widening in surprise.

“You think I don’t?” She looked ready to laugh, gesturing to herself. “I can’t even try and blame this on my aspect. I’m your best fucking friend, Luke. I know what you’re thinking and how you feel.”

“Well maybe stay out of my head then.” Luke pushed past her, unable to look her in the eye. He set his jaw, hands trembling a bit as he spoke. “I know you’ve never had personal boundaries, but other people do.” Luke’s voice cracked on the last word, dipping just as his shoulder hit hers. The contact felt like ice, sending a chill down his spine as he felt her staring after him.

He flew after Ivan and Fran, a bit shaken. His shoulders were still felt tense, like there was some sort of extra layer of stress inside that he just couldn’t shake off. They turned and flew along after a stiff nod from him, both of them sharing looks that he pretended he couldn’t see.

“Fine, this game needs a detached heart player?” Ally sniffed to herself, coming up to fly beside him and shocking him out of his train of thought. “Fine. Great. Screw everyone else, I’ll just help myself.” He gave her a questioning glance, but she was looking straight ahead, face set in a neutral expression. He turned away, biting his lip. There he went again, fucking up the game probably. _When would it end?_

They entered through the cracks again, leaving behind the doomed timeline. It was like a weight off of Luke’s chest, but that didn’t help the cold shoulder he knew Ally was going to be giving him. They flew in silence, Ivan and Fran having left behind their pretense of conversation for trying to find a crack that seemed worthwhile enough to go into.

They were everywhere, now, the cracks. When they had first entered after leaving their own timeline, their small path and the one crack up ahead had been the only things in the darkness. Now, cracks were as common as stars in the night sky, illuminating everything in their rainbow light. They lit up the blackness like veins in a body, and Luke was terrified to think what was causing them. Ivan had said something powerful, yes. But thinking about something so powerful as to disrupt time and space itself seemed too big to imagine. He just hoped the crack they would pick wouldn’t be the one with that being in it.

Suddenly, light was blinding him, bathing everything in a brilliant white as a brand new crack shattered into existence just in front of them. Ally and Luke were able to pull back, but Fran wasn’t quick enough, getting sucked into it even though Ivan tried to make a grab at her. She disappeared through the crack just as the colors appeared in it, and Ally let out a bitter laugh.

“Well, I guess that’s the one we’re going in.” 

Luke frowned over at her, but she was already moving forward, diving after Fran quickly while Ivan followed. Luke sighed again, wishing there was some sort of way they could know what they were getting into.

Then again, with Ally, things had always been kind of a surprise.

As soon as the tingling feeling subsided and his eyes had adjusted, he took a look at his surroundings, trying to orient himself before Ally went zooming off further than she already had.

They seemed to be in another Prospit, although this one’s skies were just as dark. The city below had lost its’ gleam, giving off instead the look of a brass instrument that had sat in a closet, unused. The streets were littered with carapaces, most of them running and shouting. He turned to look in another direction, and his blood froze in his veins.

The troll’s ship was directly in front of them.

“Fucking christ, we can’t catch a break.” He breathed, then Ivan was pulling on his arm, saying something about stopping Fran. Luke turned to look, already dreading it before he even saw it. Fran and Ally were zooming downwards, straight toward a giant group of robots harassing the carapaces.

“No doubt they were interrogating for our whereabouts.” Ivan mused about the robots, frowning. “I imagine us giving that troll the slip was quite frustrating.”

“Doesn’t mean she can just do this to the citizens, though.” Luke argued, looking at the destruction. “What makes her think they would even know who we are?”

Just then, a cheer rang out below them, and they looked down to see a large group of carapaces pointing up to Fran.

“Our thief has returned! Our thief has come to save us! Long live the hero!”

“Oh.” Luke murmured, following quickly behind Ivan as he flew down after the girls. “Of course. This is her Prospit. Where else would she have fallen? Not to some tropical paradise, no. Not even to some timeline where they’ve never even heard of us. Nope, had to pick the scariest timeline ever.”

“I believe the scariest timeline would be one where the troll took control of a god tier version of you.” Ivan countered nonchalantly, making Luke snort. Ivan looked back over to him, shrugging. “What? A god tier doom player is a formidable wildcard. I’m frankly surprised she hasn’t tried to come after you since the beginning.” Ivan swerved in the air, accessing his hammer Ally had alchemized for him back in the beginning. He swung, and with the momentum he got by falling, took the first robot’s head clean off of his shoulders. The robot’s body sparked a bit, then fell to the ground, the cornered carapaces cheering when they saw them.

The cheering quickly returned to screams, and Luke spun around to see more robots across the way. Ally and Fran were already flying towards them, tag-teaming them as Fran distracted the robots while Ally sliced them in half. Her sword was flying through the air, the same dark grimace on her face as when she first decided to follow Emma. Luke could feel his own defensive instincts flaring up inside of him, and he accessed his own sword, flying into the frenzy.

It was a mess of metal and screams. Screeches rang out with every blow, only deafening him more. It was hard to focus on anything except whatever robot was in front of him at the time, which is why he was too late to stop her.

He had just sliced the arm off of a robot who was terrorizing a smaller carapace when a huge gust of wind followed something that zoomed by him, nearly knocking him over. Luke stumbled a bit before righting himself, looking with wide eyes for what could have been flying that fast. His gaze landed on a streak of bright red which could only have been Ally, disappearing into the fray once again.

“Ally, stop!” Fran screeched, flying by him quickly as well. Giving the robot next to him a final chop, he jumped into the air after her, grabbing Ivan’s shoulder as he flew by him. Ivan righted himself more quickly, spinning into the air while his jetpack sputtered to life as they chased behind the girls.

“Fran! Where’s she going?” Luke called ahead, trying to see around the robots still in the air. 

“She found Emma.” Fran’s voice was hoarse, eyes wide and worried. “Emma has Alec, and Ally saw them going into the palace.”

Luke’s breath froze in his throat. They had found Alec? He was still alive?

“She’s planning on following them into the castle?” Ivan asked, speeding up now that he realized what was happening. “What makes her think she can take Emma and her robots on by herself?”

“It’s probably blind rage at this point.” Fran mused, frowning. “Just think about it. She feels bad because her alternate selves that survived were all bad guys that hurt us. She also feels responsible for Emma, who was her best friend before all this happened. Those two reasons would have been enough in themselves, but Emma also has Ally’s brother. The only family she has left, you know? She just wants to save someone.”

“It is enough to drive anyone to something illogical.” Ivan agreed, and Luke pushed past them in the air.

“Enough narrating and analyzing. Let’s just help her before she does something stupid.” As he pushed past Fran, he frowned, feeling a wet spot land on his pants leg. He turned to look, eyes popping open wider. “Fran! You’re hurt!”

She pulled her arm closer to herself, grimacing. “Honestly, I’ve had worse. It’s just a cut. We’ll heal it up later once we have a chance to rest.” Luke gave her a look, and she rolled her eyes. “Seriously, it’s fine. We’ll deal with it after we make sure Ally’s not on a suicide mission.”

With that, they turned and flew towards the castle, entering carefully through the open doors with their weapons drawn.

Broken furniture and torn tapestries led the way, a trail of destruction littering the hallways. The broken pieces led the way down towards the dungeons, and then through a familiar door. Luke shivered, remembering the last time he had been trapped in underground tunnels with Emma. He had hoped it would never happen again, but here they were, yet again fighting for their survival.

“They seem to be taking the same path we took on our own Prospit.” Ivan commented, wind making it hard to hear him as they continued flying. “Emma must be using Alec to try and find the Sacrificial Slabs.”

As they continued on, they could hear shouts echoing down the stone halls, and Luke noticed a small trail of blood on the floor. It wasn’t much, just a few drops here and there, but it was enough to worry him. Whose blood was it?

They turned a corner and his stomach dropped further. Just ahead were the same doors that had led to the Sacrificial Slabs in their session. Through the doors, however, shouting was echoing, followed by bright flashes of blue and pink light. He dove forward, looking immediately to the scene to make sure it wasn’t too late. He’d had enough of being too late for Ally.

“You knew my bed wouldn’t be here!” Emma was shrieking, firing shot after light blue shot into the air. Luke watched her, confused. What was she shooting at? It was just dark up there. “You knew!” Three robots were in a circle around her, staring up uselessly into the darkness as well.

“It’s not a bed, idiot, it’s a sacrificial slab!” He heard Ally shriek, and spun around, trying to find her. She came swooping down from the ceiling, hands glowing pink and headed straight for Emma. Emma fired off a shot, sending Ally swerving to the left and back up into the darkness where they couldn’t see her. The robots fired after her, and Luke breathed easier when no sound echoed down to signify she had been shot. Alec was nowhere to be found, and Luke could only hope that Ally had moved him to somewhere safe.

“Hey, witch!” Fran shouted, drawing the attention over to them. Emma spun around, immediately firing off a round of shots and scattering them around the room. The robots followed suit, two flying over with guns pointed forward. Luke dove out of the way, rolling to a stop just as the robot came crashing down on him. He winced as the metal collided with his skin, sure to leave some bruises. After struggling to move the robot’s legs off his arm, he finally managed to get his sword swinging up and around, hacking into the back of the robot again and again. Eventually, it sparked, and with a crackling noise, went limp above him.

He shoved the hunk of metal off of him, turning quickly to make sure no one else had gotten hurt. Fran and Ivan were fighting off the other two robots while Emma was circling around up above, trying to locate Ally in the darkness. Someone must have repaired her jetpack.

“Luke!” Someone hissed, making him turn. He squinted into the shadows on either side of the slabs, only to drop his mouth open in surprise.

“Alec?”

Just like Fran, this version of Alec was three years older and battle worn. He had scars up and down his arms, glasses bent at a weird angle around his left ear. He grinned, and Luke relaxed upon seeing the same kind of dopey smile. Then his eyes landed on the large wet patch on the side of Alec’s shirt, steadily growing larger the longer he looked. 

Immediately, he crawled over, crouching behind the slab with him. “Alec, what the hell happened?”

“Doesn’t matter.” Alec shook his head, and now that he was closer, Luke could hear how much he was struggling to breathe. “I’ve gotta tell you something before I go.”

“No, no.” Luke frowned. “We are not losing you again. You’re not dying, Alec.”

“No, I am.” He laughed weakly. “But that’s the thing, I’m gonna be able to come back.” Luke drew back a bit, and Alec rolled his eyes. “Alright, _you’ve_ gotta listen to _me,_ now. I need to explain this before it’s too late. These Sacrificial Slabs are for us to ascend. Emma doesn’t have one here because the game hid hers from her.” Luke tried to ask how the game would know to do that, but Alec was continuing on, obviously rushing the explanation. “There’s one for all of us. There’s the Heart bed--Ally’s already ascended, apparently, so she doesn’t need it--a Doom bed, for you, Time for Ivan, Space for Fran, and a Mind bed. I don’t know of any mind players, I don’t know why that would be here.”

Luke looked up, eyes landing on a light green bed as his mind flashed back. He bit his lip--no, now was not the time to tell him.

“See that bed with the sun on it? That’s the Light bed. You’ve gotta get me over there. Once I die on it, I’ll come back.”

“Are you sure?” Luke finally interrupted. “Like, you’re positive you’ll come back?”

Alec hesitated for a second, like he couldn’t believe Luke was actually concerned about him. Then a smile spread slowly, and he asked, “It’s worth a shot, right?” Without waiting another minute, Luke stooped and put Alec’s arm over his shoulder and yanked him up to a standing position.

“Slow down, Jegus.” Alec hissed. “I may be coming back to life but I can still feel how bad it hurts right now.” Luke rolled his eyes, hurrying them across the platform and towards the weird looking sun symbol. Fran and Ivan were down to their last robot, and Ally and Emma were still circling above them, locked in a fierce sword fight.

As Luke leaned Alec down on the bed, Alec grabbed his arm. He looked up, watching as Alec’s eyes grew more distant and his breath was coming less and less easily.

“When someone else gets hurt, get them on these beds. I don’t know how long it takes to work, but it will. Emma needs to be stopped, so focus on that, and don’t you dare let Ally be killed. We need her.” Luke nodded, and Alec grinned with a tired expression. “And if I don’t come back, let Ally know she was the best sister I could have ever asked for, yeah?”

Before Luke could respond, a deep rumbling shook the cavern, and Luke looked up to see a few rocks falling from the ceiling, along with Emma. Ally was picking herself up from a stone ledge roughly, as if she had been hit hard. Emma rolled as she landed, looking up to see Ivan and Fran coming at her, the last robot finally destroyed. She grimaced, raising her gun to point directly at Fran and letting off a shot.

“Fran!” Ally shrieked from above, and Luke stood quickly, heart freezing in his chest. In what seemed like slow motion, they watched as the shot flew threw the cavern--and struck Ivan in the chest, who had thrown himself in front of Fran.

His whole body glowed with the blue light for a moment before he dropped, landing with a solid _thunk_ as he hit the stone floor. Fran fell to her knees beside him, grabbing onto his shoulders as she choked out, “Ivan, oh God, Ivan.” Ally, overhead, dove at Emma again.

Ivan coughed a bit, body shaking violently, and Fran gripped him tighter as the tears left her eyes. “Why did you do that? Why would you?”

He looked up at her, hand resting heavily on his chest. A bit of purple blood trickled from the corner of his mouth as he tried to smile up at her. “I could not bear to lose you another time, Francine.” Fran let out another sob, and Luke remembered with a shock what Alec had said. He looked down, looking at the now still boy on the slab before him. It was almost as if he had known what would happen.

“Fran! Get Ivan on his slab!” Luke shouted, then ducked as more rock fell from the ceiling. Emma was firing upwards again, still trying to get Ally, who was now throwing rocks along with whatever that pink glowing stuff was. Luke could feel the fury ignite inside him as he watched her, then turned and ran to Fran, helping her lift Ivan’s much larger body and carry him over to his slab.

They heard Emma shriek, and almost at the same time, a glowing light spread throughout the cavern. It was a pale yellow, bathing everything in stark contrast to the shadows it created as it grew and spread. Once they had Ivan settled on his slab, Luke finally looked up, watching as Alec’s slab was consumed completely by the light.

“How could you!” Rang out through the cavern, then a red light joined the yellow as a deep rumble shook the caverns once more. Luke shielded his eyes from the light, struggling to find Fran and get them to cover from the falling rocks. They ducked behind Ivan’s slab, Luke using his arms to shield Fran’s face. Shouts continued to echo as the rumbling grew louder, and with a burst of light brighter than the rest, the rumbling stopped abruptly. An eerie silence settled over the cavern, save for the smaller rocks still settling. He could hear something heavier land on the floor, and then a grunt.

“Shit.” Someone hissed, and Luke and Fran peeked up over the edge of the raised platform to look.

Above them, a figure in a red outfit was floating, edges of the long garment fluttering gently in the light breeze that was now winding its way through the room. They turned their head, pulling back the dark hood to reveal a long set of horns, and Fran gasped.

“Ivan?”

The figure next to Ivan laughed, and they both looked up again as well to see another orange clad figure floating in the air as well. His hood was already down, leaving amused green eyes sparkling behind thick glasses.

“Alec?” Luke snorted, and Fran grinned in wonder, “They ascended, they actually did it.”

“Did you really doubt me?” Alec asked, grin still splitting his face. He let out a laugh again, coming down to land on his slab. Ivan landed as well, looking at the chest of his outfit where a gear sat in the center of the shirt. He had a fond smile on his face, then looked to Fran. 

“Glad to see you are well.”

“Yeah, no thanks to you!” She grinned, then leaped over the edge of the slab to wrap him in a tight hug. Ivan held her tightly, smile bigger than he had ever seen. Luke took the moment to ask Alec, “How did you know?”

Alec smirked again, so unlike the boy Luke had known. He seemed so much more sure of himself, so much more confident. “It’s the light aspect, has to do with knowledge. Most of that was a lucky guess, though.”

“Not lucky enough.”

Everyone turned, looking to see Ally pick herself up off the floor. Fran gasped, immediately moving to help her. Blood was streaked up and down her arms and she was fingering a bleeding nose, trying to tilt her head back. Though she tried to hide it, Luke could still see her wincing as Fran poked at it.

“What the hell happened to you?” Luke asked, coming around the side of the slab as Alec drifted down beside him. 

“The ceiling started caving in while I was fighting Emma.” Ally mumbled, accepting the torn bit of cloth Ivan offered her. She caught Luke’s eye and sighed, wiping the blood off her arms before pressing it to her nose. “Don’t worry, most of this is her blood. She got away though. I couldn’t see her when it got really bright.” She smirked a bit, nodding to Ivan. “Congrats on the cool pajamas.”

“It’s thanks to Alec, really.” Ivan told her, shooting him a look. “He knew what to do.”

Alec blushed, looking down. “I mean, it was nothing. I just kind of saw it--” He was cut off as Ally leaped onto him, arms clenched tightly around his shoulders. He seemed surprised, but quickly recovered, arms wrapping around her waist just as tightly.

“I’m so glad you’re okay.” She whispered, and Alec nodded against her shoulder, saying nothing. Fran smiled and grabbed Ivan’s hand again, who shot Luke a smirk.

“So, three of us are god tier.” Ally finally said, turning around. Alec stayed just behind her, matching green eyes watchful. Really, how had they never noticed the similarities before? “You two have the chance to ascend right now.”

Fran’s cheerful face faltered, and Luke actually flinched. “Are you suggesting we kill ourselves?”

“I’m not saying you have to!” Ally argued, already defensive. “I’m just saying you could. God tier powers will get us a lot further and really help the next time we fight with Emma.”

Luke looked over to his slab, sitting on the other side of the platform as if to taunt him. It was carved out of sandstone, it looked like, a deep yellow-green with the strange looking doom symbol at its head. He hated how much it looked like a skull. But what he hated more was how afraid he was. This game was dangerous. All of his friends had died at some point, and he had watched them all fall only to rise again in the heroic manner they deserved. How could he follow? Yes, the promise of more power was enticing, even Ivan had said he would be really strong. But how could he keep promoting the destruction of everyone and everything? Was that really what this game was about? What his aspect was about, maybe?

“Nah, it’s a wimp’s way out.” He scoffed finally, putting on a confident air even though his fingers trembled. “Choosing to die? Like you’d actually want to do that.”

Instantly, everyone quieted, Fran looking with wide eyes to Ally. Ivan shuffled his feet awkwardly and Alec looked up and away completely. Luke frowned, wondering why everyone was so quiet. And then, behind Ally, he saw it.

The pale green Sacrificial Slab of a mind player. A player who should have been there to ascend with them. A player Ally tried to save, and couldn’t.

“Well, I guess I already did make that decision, didn’t I?” Ally replied coldly, and as Luke made eye contact, a rush of emotion launched itself into him. He knew it wasn’t his, he could tell from the moment it hit. It was hers, unleashed and pouring fully into his mind so that he could understand.

 _I already made the decision to sacrifice myself for someone, didn’t I?_ The voice taunted in his mind, and he closed his eyes as memory after memory of Ben’s smile played in his mind. He could feel his chest tighten with the warmth of Ben’s gaze, feel the nervousness in her stomach when she had grabbed his hand, feel the pure rage and desire and instinct to protect him as she dove after Emma to stop her from getting to him.

And the grief when she had seen it was all in vain.

Luke couldn’t breathe. It was as if his lungs had been ripped from his chest, as if his heart had stopped beating. A cold weight settled in his stomach, dragging out a cry of complete anguish as he saw Ben’s cold body on the floor. The despair was welling up inside of him, filling him up like a balloon ready to burst at a moment’s notice. _I already chose to die for someone, didn't I, Luke?_ Ben had been the one true player good enough to win this game. He had such pure passion and drive that he could have been the one to truly ascend. And she couldn’t save him. For all that she tried, she couldn’t: she couldn’t protect him from the evil that was most likely all her fault. She had loved him, loved him with a burning passion that Luke had only seen once before. She had loved him and she had lost him in one swift movement. She had loved him, and she had lost him before she ever even got the chance to truly have him.

“Ally, that’s enough.”

Instantly, the memories cut off, and Luke dropped to one knee, chest heaving for air. The pink glow was gone from behind his eyes, and as he slowly refocused his gaze on the ground before him, he could hear Ivan muttering quietly to her.

“I understand that you are upset. But that is _not_ the way to get him to understand. You cannot force memories on him without his consent.”

“I didn’t even know you could do that.” Alec mumbled, and Luke looked up to see the surprise etched on his face. “Just how powerful have you gotten since ascending?”

“Powerful enough.” Ally growled, and when Luke looked to her, it was only anger in her gaze. Anger and pain and a _grief_ he never could have comprehended unless he had seen what he had. Now he understood her mood swings lately, he could finally start to understand why she had been acting the way she had. Fran was right. She wanted to save someone--anyone--to prove that it hadn’t been a worthless gesture. She wanted to save someone so that Ben would forgive her for failing him.

She turned away from him then, leaving a cold, hard feeling in his chest. He stood, still a bit shaky from the emotions. Alec held a hand under his elbow, but Luke shook him off. Fran looked worriedly between Luke and Ally, then said quietly, “I don’t think I could do it, either. We should probably just get out of here before Emma can come back with any more robots.”

Alec nodded, turning to grab the fallen jetpacks lying on the floor. He and Ivan dumped the rest of their fuel into Luke and Fran’s packs evenly, then they turned and followed Ally up and out of the cavern. It was much easier going now that they had Alec to direct them through the tunnels, but it didn’t prepare them for what they saw when they exited the castle.

Fallen carapaces littered the streets, along with the broken bodies of the robots. Buildings lay in ruins, stone and concrete and whatever else the Prospitian buildings were made from. Complete and utter ruin, Luke thought. Everything was destroyed.

“There’s the ship.” Ivan pointed, all of them following his finger to where the ship was already moving towards another crack in the sky. Cracks were as common as the clouds, casting an eerie glow of differing colors over the once golden city. “Are we following?”

“I mean, wherever we go, she’s going to find us.” Alec answered grimly. Luke didn’t like the way he was looking around, as if he could see more than just what was in front of them. Ivan was doing it as well, and it was creeping him out. “We might as well try and evade her as long as we can.”

“Through a different crack, then?” Fran sighed, playing with the straps as they turned and flew into the crack nearest them.

Again, the feeling of doom left his gut, and Luke began to breathe a bit easier. Ally’s memories had jolted him even further out of his comfort zone than he’d like to admit. He and Alec had been on the same train of thought, though: How could she do that?

He watched his friends ahead of them, Ivan and Fran furiously discussing new possibilities and Alec attempting to comfort Ally with awkward shoulder pats. Was it because of her god tier powers that she could do this? She had been god tier longer than anyone else, maybe she was the strongest. Not to mention Ivan never shut up about just how powerful heirs could be. Could she control other people’s emotions? And how had she put that thought in his head? Was she making him think it through her emotions?

“Shit, look out!” Ally shouted, spinning and grabbing Alec just in time as a large crack shattered into existence next to them. They spun a bit before Ally righted them, both of them looking around nervously for more.

“We need to be more careful. The universe is very unstable right now.” Ivan told them, protectively putting a hand on Fran’s shoulder. 

“Yeah, no shit.” Luke grumbled, then more crackling was heard from behind him, and Ally shoved him out of the way as another crack shattered behind them. He looked up to her, but she was already moving out of the way again, facing away from him. He had no doubt in his mind she felt embarrassed about what she had done. Even though Ally was as open as she was, she always tried to stay put together and strong for everyone, and she had revealed a deep crack in her walls with what she had shown him. He swallowed the lump in his throat, looking at her completely differently than he had before.

Before he could think about it any further, cracks began appearing all around them, and Ivan finally grabbed onto Fran and said, “Here we go!” They fell backwards through one of the new ones, Ally and Alec quickly following in a bright flash of light. With a deep breath, Luke followed, closing his eyes as he dove into the light after them. 

And instantly wished he would have kept them closed.


	4. Everyone: Fight ==>

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your name is Luke Baker, you're 17 years old, and you have no idea how to play this game. What you have learned though, are three things. One: Not everything is what it seems. Like trolls being an extinct race. Apparently there's like, six more hiding out on this meteor. Two: You learned that trust in your friends is everything here. You wouldn't have made it this far without them. And three: You learned how to fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is it, the final chapter! Thanks to everyone who read this, it was a wild ride. 
> 
> This is also the chapter where the canon characters join the party, so have fun with them. (: Expect a lot more bonus content in the future! 
> 
> Thanks again everyone!

“Fran, on your left!”

Fran spun out of the way once more, eyes wide open. Meteors had begun raining down on them since they had entered this new crack, and it was becoming harder and harder to dodge them. Luke spun out of the way once more, then called ahead to Ivan, “We need to get somewhere safe!”

Luke stuck close behind Alec as they all flew quickly, each of them trying to locate a safer place to go. Up ahead, a larger meteor shifted in another direction, and his eyes widened as it caught the light. Was that a building? On top of a meteor?

“What the…?” Alec mumbled, obviously as confused as him. The building looked like it disappeared right through the surface of the larger meteor, as if it had been built into the rock.

“Head for that thing!” Ally shouted, grabbing Fran’s hand and pulling them forward. Ivan knocked a few smaller meteors away with Alec’s old shield, and Luke wondered idly why they could all breathe in space.

They landed hard on the meteor, turning to look up at the space above them. “Where are we?” Fran asked, brow furrowing as she watched above her. Luke opened his mouth, then froze. He’d had this feeling before, back when they had crossed in front of a different crack. A sense of dread lifting from his chest, allowing him to breathe a little easier. He glanced quickly over to Ivan, who wore a similar expression of confusion. Could it be..?

“I believe we are in the alpha timeline.” Ivan said quietly, then turned to look at where they had landed. It seemed like a metal rooftop, with a doorway up ahead. 

“Alpha timeline? Like, the big main one?” Ally asked, eyes wide. Alec nodded eagerly, starting for the door. “I wonder who’s inside.”

A small meteor crashed off to their left, and Luke hurried after Alec. They needed to get off this roof where they were practically sitting ducks. Ally reached the door first, pounding on it with her fist when she discovered it was locked. Alec quickly joined in, shouting every so often. Luke watched with a roll of his eyes. What if no one was inside? What would they do then?

“Who the fuck is that?”

A muffled shout reached them on the outside, and Luke’s eyes widened. _I guess we’ll never find out. Of course there were people inside._ Alec paused in surprise, but Ally pounded again on the door, shouting back, “There’s meteors about to hit us! Let us in!”

The door flew open and everyone rushed inside. It was darker in here, causing them to all trip into each other. In the quiet chaos that resulted from Luke tripping over Fran and Ally running into someone and starting a shouting match, Ivan tugged on Alec’s sleeve and whispered, “Change out of the god tier outfit. We may not want them to know so we have an advantage.”

Alec nodded, shifting into his old clothes just as the door slammed shut behind them, locking them in. Luke blinked, trying to adjust his eyes to the darkness, and instead only saw a flurry of red and pink waving about in front of him.

“Get the fuck off of my hood!”

“Let me go! Who do you fucking think you are you pink pathetic excuse--”

“Look who’s calling who pathetic! You’re stuck in my hood!”

“Karkat!”

Everyone paused at the new voice, turning to look to its source. Four people were coming out of the shadow of a doorway across the room, and Luke’s eyes widened as he saw them. 

They were trolls, just like Ivan. Grey skin, different kinds of horns, but trolls. Holy shit. He had thought Ivan was the only one they’d ever see, but here were three more, accompanied by another human. A girl, with short blonde hair and gorgeous features. Luke smirked at her, then turned back to look to the troll who had shouted.

She was at the head of the group, black hair cropped short above her angled face. She wore a purple sash tied around her middle and a very calm expression. “Karkat, who is this?”

More muffled swearing and a grunt from Ally, and another, shorter troll was shoving their way out from the center of their group. Fran slid back closer to Ivan, watching everyone carefully. Alec jumped backwards from the smaller troll, even though he was only as tall as Ally, even with his nubby horns.

“How the fuck should I know! They were knocking on the door like maniacs!”

A few more bodies trailed in, watching Luke’s group with curiosity. He opened his mouth, but Ally was already shouting right back.

“We were trying to get out of the meteor shower, thank you very much!”

“It’s space out there! Literally space! There’s fucking nothing, where did you even come from?”

“Through the cracks.” Ally answered as if this was obvious, earning an even more baffled look from the troll.

The human girl perked up, eyes widening almost imperceptibly as the group of meteor inhabitants drew closer. There was another human and a couple more trolls, including one as tall as Ivan. He stayed at the back and had a creepy smile on his face, and Luke frowned. Man, something about that dude was weird.

“How could you have come through the cracks?” The shouty one--'Karkat', Luke assumed--was saying. He looked completely baffled, like he couldn’t wrap his mind around this. “That literally makes zero fucking sense.”

“Not necessarily.” The human girl of the new group spoke up, shooting one of the other trolls with a weird eye a glance. “We have been theorizing that something could be coming through them.”

“Okay, but why would some lame kids be coming through there?” The weird-eyed troll argued, while another asked, “How could they breathe in space?”

“I sincerely doubt they could use the cracks as transporting.” Karkat scoffed over her, folding his arms, and Ally frowned at him.

“I told you, we came through the cracks! They transport you to different realities and timelines!”

“Now you just sound fucking stupid.” 

“Says the guy who answered the door to a group of strangers.” The troll with the weird eye snorted, and Karkat spun to face her.

“You’re not fucking helping, Vriska! Don’t you have someone else to brutally murder?”

“What’s this motherfuckin’ purple blood doing with a fire-bitch like her?”

Everyone froze, turning to look at the deep voice that had interrupted them. It was the tall troll from before, his face still covered in that dopey smirk from before as he stood directly behind the troll with the sash. Was that facepaint on him? Luke noticed that a couple of the trolls got tense, their stances turning defensive. _Who was this dude?_

“How do you know he’s a purple blood?” Karkat asked, and the tall one smirked further. Luke glanced at Ivan, who had grown still, a faint look of alarm dancing across his face.

“You can motherfucking smell it on a brother.” The troll stepped even further forward, and the one with the sash pulled a chainsaw out from behind her skirt.

“Also, it’s kind of on his shirt. Did you get stabbed, dude?” The human male of the group asked, smirking behind his sunglasses. Luke frowned. Why did he look so familiar?

Everyone looked to Ivan as he took a step back, and Ally, oblivious to Ivan’s expression from where she stood, spit out, “Did he just call me a fire-bitch?”

“Don’t listen to him.” Karkat sighed in defeat, rolling his eyes as he turned to look at Ally. “He’s crazy. Vriska usually keeps him locked up in his chamber.”

“Locked up?” Ally looked from Karkat back to the taller troll, who was now only a couple feet away from them. Luke took a step closer to her, watching carefully as she asked, “Like, by himself?” Was she concerned about this troll? Everyone else almost seemed scared of him.

“The name’s Gamzee.” He extended his hand, and Luke’s mind blanked a bit as he caught sight of the troll’s claws. Ivan usually kept his trimmed short, and this guy’s were long and vaguely terrifying.

Before Ally could do something stupid like shake his hand, the troll with the sash and Vriska raised weapons to point at the troll, herding him back towards the doorway they all came from. Ally took a small step, almost like she was going to go after him, but Fran asked quietly, “Why are they so concerned about your blood color?”

Ivan glanced nervously to Karkat, who had a simple eyebrow raised. “What, didn’t think to tell your groupees about the hemospectrum? Interesting.”

“Another time, Karkat.” A different troll stepped forward, bright red glasses covering her eyes. “What I want to know is how they got here.”

“We did come through the cracks.” Luke responded before Ally could, although she seemed distracted now. “And they do transport you through timelines and realities. We’d rather not go into the details, if that’s cool with you all.” He gave a look to the humans, who seemed more curious than anything else. “We just needed somewhere to hide out for a bit, and when we came through a new crack we found your meteor.”

“What are you hiding from?” The troll with the sash was back, coming to stand next to Karkat just in front of them. Closer, Luke could see her skin was a bit lighter than the others, but he just figured he’d ask Ivan about that later. Luke saw the glance Fran and Ivan shared and hesitated, unsure of how much they should tell them. After all, these were virtual strangers.

“Why don’t we let them rest a bit?” The human girl offered, coming forward with an easy smile. “I’m Rose. This is Kanaya, and you know Karkat by now.”

“Terezi.” The one with the red glasses smiled, leaning forward a bit to sniff at Fran, who just giggled.

“I’m Fran.” She turned and pointed to their group. “The troll is Ivan, and that’s Alec, Ally and Luke.”

“Sup. I’m Dave.” The other human told them, and Ally’s mouth dropped open.

“Holy fuck, I knew I recognized you.”

Everyone gave each other a look, and Ally grinned wider. “You’re like, my favorite actor ever! Holy shit, a different version of him is in the game. Is _you_. Holy shit.”

“Ally, what the hell are you saying?” Luke hissed, but Fran spoke over them.

“There’s a lot for us to explain. Do you maybe have somewhere we could rest up and eat? Then we’d be more than willing to explain everything that’s happened.” She smiled evenly, obviously hoping the promise of a story was enough to win them passage inside.

Dave was still giving Ally a weird look, and Terezi was now trying to sniff Ivan, so Karkat sighed and waved his hands. “Yeah, sure, why the fuck not? Come on in and welcome or whatever.” He turned and led them through the doorway, and Luke thankfully didn’t see any sign of the creepy troll. Gamzee, wasn’t it? Karkat led them down a few flights of stairs to a series of what looked like rooms, and Rose pointed out where they could shower and where to go afterwards to find them and something to eat.

It only took around a half an hour for everyone to get cleaned up, then they all gathered in the kitchen looking area that Rose had pointed out. Ally was still quiet, hanging just behind Alec as she stared at Karkat.

“What the fuck are you looking at?”

“You sound so familiar.” Ally frowned further, and Karkat rolled his eyes.

“What, am I an actor like Dave? Did you watch pan-numbing movies that barely pass as humor back on your planet?”

“Dude, why do you gotta assume my movies were terrible?” Dave groaned, sliding into a chair at the table next to Ally. “She said I was her favorite actor. That probably means I was great.”

“If we’re talking about the same Dave, then no, you were terrible.” Luke snorted, and Ally frowned at him.

“Why don’t we just get to telling our story.” Fran interrupted before anyone else could say anything. She sat at the table next to Ivan, holding a mug of what vaguely smelled like tea. Everyone nodded and sat, Luke sitting next to Ivan and Terezi. She immediately leaned over with a grin on her face, and he sighed. Maybe he should have picked a different seat. Alec was on Ally’s left, Rose and Kanaya were across from him, and Karkat stood watching all of them with a frown on his face.

“So.” Rose smiled evenly, reminding Luke of a librarian at his old school. God, how long ago was that? “Why don’t you start with how you entered the game?”

Ally opened her mouth, but Luke leaned forward on the table, determined to be the one telling the story. Ally was sure to screw things up and tell them everything.

“We all started playing the game about three months ago, now.” He started, ignoring how Ally was frowning at him. “At first, it was okay, but we kind of had a corrupt player. She screwed us up from the get go, and we only learned later that it was because of an outside influence. So we tried to stop her, and she ended up killing this one and that one.” He pointed at Fran and Alec respectively, and smirked at Rose and Dave's expressions. “Then we decided to follow her and the--” He paused. Should they know about the troll? Maybe later. “We followed her through the crack in the sky. There was only the one, at first. So then we ended up in this new timeline and met my son, and our friend chased us around on Prospit and ended up killing Ally and my son. But then Ally ended up becoming god tier because she died on her Sacrificial Slab, but our friend got away.” Karkat looked like he was going to interrupt, but Kanaya shushed him, so Luke continued.

“After that, we went into another crack and met a different timeline version of Ally and Fran. That Ally died but this Fran came with us. Then we went and followed Emma and the ship through _another_ crack and fought a bunch of red robots and figured out there was a different timeline version of Alec still alive. So we rescued him and some more shit happened, and long story short, we came through yet another crack and ended up in a meteor shower, which is when you so graciously allowed us into your home. House-thing. Building? Whatever.” Luke spread his hands wide, sighing. “So, that is how we ended up here.”

Ally was frowning at him, obviously annoyed that he had left some things out. Ivan’s face was calm, but he could see his eyes flicking around with anxiety. Fran was covering a smile as Terezi continued to sniff at Luke’s shirt, Rose and Dave looked confused, and Karkat looked ready to explode.

“That’s it?”

Luke was taken aback, and Ally finally smirked as he asked, “What do you mean that’s it?”

“All we get is that you decide to keep flying through some cracks after your friend?” Karkat snorted. “Why the fuck would you fly after her when she killed two of you? And why did she kill two of you? I thought humans were supposed to be more ‘civilized’ or whatever the fuck Dave said. What exactly was this outside influence? And what is this ship? And where did those fucking robots come from? And you’re telling me this girl with obnoxiously red hair is the only one of you that could ascend on her slab?” Ally outright giggled at that, rolling her eyes. 

“Karkat.” Kanaya muttered, giving him a warning glance. He threw his hands in the air and turned away, walking over to take a seat on a stool at the edge of the room. Kanaya sighed and turned back to them, watching Luke evenly. “While I disapprove of how he went about that, he does have a few good points, and some good questions. Care to answer?”

Luke glanced to Ivan, but Alec sighed. “No point in keeping anything from them. They’ve seen worse anyways.” Ally was giving Luke a look that distinctly said, _What now, fearless leader?_

“I fucking told you they were keeping something secret!”

“Yes, we got that, Karkat.” Rose smirked, and Dave was grinning as well. Karkat reminded Luke of a very angry furball.

“Well, I’ll try and answer his questions.” Fran offered, still watching Terezi with an amused expression. “Karkat, feel free to interrupt if I miss something.”

“You bet your pink fucking hairband I will.”

Fran grinned, then looked back to Kanaya and Rose. “Alright. Why we flew after her was your first question, right? They flew after her because she was our friend. As much as she hurt us, we had to try and save her. I’m sure you can understand that. As for your next two questions…” Fran trailed off, glancing to Ivan. He nodded slightly, so she continued. “The outside influence was a troll who had somehow taken control of her mind. That’s why she killed two of us. She was after something, and we got in her way. Simple as that.”

“What was she after that was fucking worth killing you?”

Ally shifted awkwardly, and Fran kept her expression neutral. “Let me get through these questions before any new ones come up.” She turned to look back to Kanaya. “The red ship belongs to whoever this mysterious troll’s leader is, as are the robots. We believe the troll, named Lucius, is working for whoever is behind the cracks in space.”

The group shared an expression at that, which caused Luke to frown. They definitely knew something he didn’t, and he didn’t like that.

“And yes, Ally was the only one to ascend.” Fran finished, then raised an eyebrow at Karkat. “Anything else?”

“Yes. What was your friend after?”

Fran opened her mouth, but Ally interrupted her.

“Me.” She sighed, looking down at her hands. “Emma was after me. Apparently, I’m the reason the troll doesn’t win. Me and some other heart player are supposed to stop her.”

“What’s so fucking special about you?” Karkat snorted, and Kanaya’s eyes widened. 

“Karkat!”

“No, no, it’s a fair question.” Ally shrugged. “I mean, I don’t know the answer. As far as I knew, heart players were only good for emotions and stuff, you know? And even I’m sucky at that. But supposedly, I’m the reason we’re able to defeat this troll, and that’s why she was going back through timelines to try and stop me.” She was still frowning, and Luke could tell she was holding back a few questions of her own.

"What do you mean by stop you?" Dave asked, "Were you stealing?"

"Uh, no." Ally grimaced. "Stop me as in, like, kill me. Dead."

Everyone paused awkwardly, Dave finally offering, "Well...shit."

“The game also scratched a few times because of her.” Ivan added on, Ally shooting him a thankful glance. “In timelines where she was either a different class or killed, the game ended up being scratched or reset. So we are only to assume that she is the key to our session succeeding.”

“I have a new question.” Karkat raised his hand, ignoring Kanaya’s glare. “Why is the symbol on your shirt grey when you’re a fucking highblood? Aren’t all of you proud of that shit? And where’s your facepaint?”

“What the fuck is a highblood?” Luke asked, and Ally perked up a bit.

“Gamzee’s a purple blood, too?”

“Highblood is a term used to refer to the cooler end of the hemospectrum.” Ivan answered, looking warily at Karkat, who glared back. “Trolls have different blood colors, which results in varying strengths, lifespans, heights, and abilities, to name a few. I am what some call a purple blood, while the other trolls present are a jade blood, teal, and another one absconding from his blood color like myself.” Ivan narrowed his eyes at Karkat. “I chose a different symbol and color because I refuse to believe the hemoscale is any way to classify a species and its’ resulting castes. What is your reason?”

Karkat stiffened a bit, spitting out, “Doesn’t fucking matter. But purple bloods are also the most dangerous, so good fucking luck with that.”

“The most dangerous?” Fran asked Ivan, and he sighed.

“The higher you are on the hemospectrum, the more likely you are to have violent outbursts. We also have psychic abilities known as chucklevoodoos that are mainly used to inspire fear in others.” Ivan leveled a glare at Luke, who had snorted at the word ‘chucklevoodoos’. “Like I said, I have removed myself from this caste system, and that is all I’m going to say on the matter.”

Everyone was quiet for a minute, then Ally spoke up again. 

“So how did you guys end up here?”

Rose and Kanaya shared a look, and when Rose nodded, Kanaya sighed. “Very well. Settle in for a lengthy discussion.”

“Oh boy, I love stories!”

“Shh, Fran!”

The story and its following questions lasted another two hours, by the end of which, Ally was yawning and Fran had leaned her head against Ivan’s shoulder with her eyes closed. Alec himself was struggling to stay awake, and Kanaya smiled at all of them.

“We have time for more questions tomorrow. We’ll let you get some rest.”

Rose led them back to the same rooms she had shown them before, and Luke shut the door behind him with a heavy sigh. Here they were, trapped on a meteor for who knows how long with a bunch of aliens, a couple humans, and one decidedly homicidal alien who was ‘recovering’ or whatever Kanaya said. He laid on his bed, staring up at the dark ceiling. Not only that, but more humans were coming to join them soon, along with a few sprites, and their own evil troll and it’s group.

Luke sighed to himself. They really, _really_ couldn’t catch a break.

 

\- - - - -

 

“So you’re telling me an alternate version of myself grew up to be a shitty movie star?” Dave asked, raising an eyebrow at Luke. “That’s fucking great, oh my god.” He leaned his head back with laughter again, and Fran smirked at him.

“That, and you wrote a parenting book. It’s what Ally’s brother used to raise her.”

“A parenting book? By me?” Dave lost it again, and Luke rolled his eyes. 

“Well, that explains a lot.”

“Luke!”

Everyone turned, looking to the doorway of the room where Karkat had just come sprinting through. It was the day after they’d arrived, and everyone had been up for a few hours. Fran and Ivan had immediately gone to talk to Kanaya and Rose about what was happening, and Alec trailed along, ever the curious little kid. That left Luke in the library with Dave and Terezi while Ally was off who knows where with the others. Thankfully, Fran had come in after a while and lessened some of the tension while telling stories about where all they ended up in their own timeline.

“Shit, Dave.” Karkat was taking heaving breaths, leaning heavily on the doorway as if he had just sprinted all the way up here. Dave was standing, obviously concerned, and Karkat’s eyes narrowed at him. 

“Your fucking fangirl is about to be attacked by Gamzee.”

“What?” Luke jumped up, and he and Dave ran after Karkat to the transportalizer. “What happened?”

“She fucking went up and touched him!” Karkat shoved them onto the platform. “I don’t know if she has a death wish or what, but even she should have known better than to fucking touch him when he’s having one of his fits.”

They appeared a few levels lower, following the sound of a chainsaw down the hallway. They turned a corner and saw Kanaya shove Ally back with one hand and point the chainsaw at Gamzee with another. Ally was clutching her arm, eyes wide as she stared ahead of her, shouting to Kanaya.

“Stop it! You’re scaring him!”

“Ally, what the fuck?” Karkat was running forward, and Ally turned quickly, and that’s when Luke spotted it.

Three long scratches, down the length of her arm, no doubt sliced through by Gamzee’s long claws. Dave immediately moved to grab her arm, pulling a bit of cloth from his sylladex and pressing against the cuts.

“Why did you go near him?” Karkat shrieked. “I fucking told you not to!”

“He didn’t mean to do it!” Ally argued, biting her lip hard. Luke grimaced with her. He couldn’t imagine how badly that would hurt. “He was just scared!”

Luke glanced over at the growling troll, being pushed along the corridor and back to who knows where by Kanaya. He sincerely doubted that hulking creature was scared of anything.

“Ally, we’ve got to get you cleaned up, Jegus--” Dave cut himself off, watching the soaked cloth with a worried expression. 

“He was scared!” Ally was still yelling at Karkat, eyes narrowed as he glared at her. “He was getting better until you had to go and find Kanaya! You should have just let me help him!”

“You can’t help everyone, Ally.” Luke told her, and she whipped around, eyes ablaze.

“Of course, you’re fucking here.” She stared him down. “You never let me help anyone. He’s just scared of the dark that you all keep him in and no one’s there to help him. He’s a fucking person, not a wild animal.”

“You heard Karkat!” Luke argued, gesturing to the way Gamzee and Kanaya had gone. “Purple bloods are dangerous! I can’t believe you’d do something as stupid as try and touch him!”

“Ivan’s doing just fine not being violent!” She growled back at him. “You know why? Because he has friends that care about him. He has friends that are there to calm him down and help him.”

“Maybe homicidal trolls don’t deserve help, huh?” Luke raised his eyebrows at her, and he could feel Karkat and Dave staring hard at him.

She shook her head, biting her lip. Without another word, she turned and walked away, Dave keeping his arm around her shoulders and more cloth pressed to the cuts. Luke watched them go, then groaned out loud, kicking the wall next to him.

“Girlfriend problems?” Karkat snorted, and Luke glared at him. “You know, I’m really very good at quadrants--”

“She’s not my girlfriend.” Luke walked away, instead heading to the library to see Alec.

_And she’s never going to be if you keep acting like that._

The next few days passed without another incident. He didn’t see much of Ally, but he would hear her sometimes, talking in the library with Dave or Rose. As soon as he got there, though, she’d be gone. She was with Dave a lot, now, apparently, if Karkat’s ramblings were anything to go by. He complained loudly to anyone that would listen about Dave and Kanaya having some sort of ‘adoption complex’ and taking care of the strays. However, Karkat did like Alec, because Alec was always more than willing to listen to the rants and argue with him. Alec was able to keep a level head about anything, patient to a fault. Luke often left after only four minutes.

Ivan spent a lot of time in the library as well, researching more about the game lore and discussing the events that had transpired with Rose. Fran hung around them a lot as well, taking notes and working on some sort of computer system that no one understood what it was. Terezi, who he soon learned was blind, took a special interest in his yellow shirt, and often drug him down to where she and Vriska hung out. He soon learned that Vriska was slightly terrifying and plotted a lot, but at least she paid attention to him, unlike his other friends.

Specifically Ally. She had ignored him since their fight back on Ambrose’s planet, and then again on Fran’s Prospit. The only times she had talked to him were to yell at him since then. It bothered him, but he couldn’t quite place a finger on why. What he also couldn’t understand is why her hanging out with Dave bothered him so much. Occasionally, he’d see them across the room, sitting on countertops and laughing about something. He’d scowl and turn away, walking back to find the Scourge Sisters and see what they were up to today.

He walked in the hallways alone a lot, as well. He found they were a good place to think and get things in his mind straightened out. However, he often heard conversations he wasn’t a part of, and he could never decide if that was a good thing or not.

“...I don’t know, Rose. It’s hard to explain.”

“You can always try.”

Luke paused at the doorway. That was definitely Ally in there, alright. He’d recognize her voice anywhere.

“Ally, one thing you gotta understand about Lalonde is that she’s always down to listen to people talk about their mental problems. She’s a psychologist extraordinaire.”

_Motherfucker,_ there was Dave. Of course he was there. Luke leaned back against the wall, listening.

“It’s not a mental problem, I don’t think. Like, I’m not crazy.”

“We don’t like to use the word crazy.” Rose responded, and Dave laughed at that before Ally continued.

“I just...sometimes I feel like I’m living more than one life at the same time? Like, sometimes I feel like I’m not totally there, and it’s like a daydream, but more real. I’m interacting with other people and I’m feeling different things and it’s so vivid. Then something happens and I snap back and it takes me a minute to sort it out. Like, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but after I space out, I get kind of moody afterwards.”

“I think Luke has received most of the brunt of that, yes?”

There was a pause, and Luke frowned as Ally responded. 

“Well, yeah. But it’s usually him I’m dealing with as...my other self? I don’t know how to explain it. A lot of the times when I’m a different self, I’m talking to him. And so when I snap back here and I remember what’s going on, it pisses me off, because we’re getting along so much better in the visions.”

Dave whistled. “That’s gotta be annoying. Do the daydreams happen a lot?”

“Yeah. A few times a day.”

There was another long pause, and Dave finally said, “Ally, no offense here if you’re super comfy or anything like that, but I think Rose and I would be able to take you a lot more seriously if you weren’t sitting on a clown.”

_MotherFUCKER_ , Gamzee was in there, too?! What the hell was she doing with him?

“Sorry. He helps. He kinda gets the whole ‘seeing things and getting scared’ thing. And besides, he’s allowed to be outside for a while every day, now. Karkat said.”

“Yes, Kanaya agreed.” Rose was saying, amusement in her voice. “Seems that you’ve been able to help him a lot.”

“Me and the fire-sister up and help each other. Helps to get our feelings jam on, you know?” Gamzee replied, his rumbling voice slightly muffled. Luke squeezed his eyes shut, anger flaring up in his chest. He could picture it now, couldn’t get the image out of his brain. She was probably sitting on his lap, his mouth pressed against her hair, _arms probably wrapped around her--_

“Well, I’ll look into it.” Rose’s voice interrupted his train of thought. “I do remember seeing something about heart players having a splintering of selves, but it seems strange that you’re living more lives while a god tier. Your dream self is the only explanation I can think of, but that would have merged with you as soon as you ascended.”

“Wait, so something like this is normal?”

“Told you it was a motherfucking miracle.” Gamzee told her, and Luke turned away from the door, stalking down the hallway with a glowering look on his face. All she did nowadays was hang out with Dave and Gamzee. And she was sitting on him? Was this romantic or something? That’s so like Ally, trying to have a romantic relationship with a homicidal troll alien.

“Luke? You okay, man?”

His head snapped up, gaze focusing on Alec, standing at the end of the hallway with an armful of books. He sighed, nodding. “Yeah, fine. What’s with the books?”

Alec’s face brightened immediately. “Oh! They’re for Fran’s project!” He turned and walked with Luke down the hallway, directing him towards a different room that he hadn’t been to yet. “She’s really coming along with her project, it should be done soon!”

“The weird computer?” Luke asked, and Alec grinned back at him, glasses sliding a bit down his face.

“Exactly, the weird computer.” 

Luke opened the door for him, and they turned into the room, Alec calling out a cheerful greeting as he walked over to Fran. She was on her knees at the edge of a table, hands working swiftly over a large computer board with lots of wires. Ivan was next to her, cross legged on the ground with a book spread open on his lap, pointing to whatever she was messing with. Kanaya was also in here, along with Karkat (who was pestering someone on his own laptop), Vriska and Terezi. Luke refrained from raising his eyebrows. Okay, so maybe this weird computer was kind of important.

“What the hell is going on?” He asked Terezi quietly, hopping up on the counter to sit next to her while Vriska leaned forward to look, eyes focused.

“Fran’s made a lot of progress.” She grinned back, then called over, “Frannie! Tell sunshine over here how this works.”

Fran looked up as if she was noticing everyone for the first time. “Oh! Hey Luke, when did you get here?” She smiled and leaned back on her heels, wiping her hands on her pants. “I only really need to tweak a few more things, and it should be good to go!”

“...And what exactly does it do?” Luke gave a wary look to the screen that was flashing through a series of strange symbols. A few of them seemed vaguely similar, while others definitely had to belong to Ivan’s native language.

“It’s a system based on the troll’s pesterchum.” Alec gushed excitedly, pushing up his glasses yet again. “They use trollian, and it enables them to talk to anyone at any point in their timeline.”

“So we’re going to be able to talk to anyone at any point in time except out loud and almost in person!” Fran finished, copyright smile in place. “Of course, there’s still some things that need fixing, but I’m hoping we can use it to help Ally wake up.”

Luke frowned. “Ally’s awake though? She’s in the library right now.” He bit his tongue, stopping himself from finishing the rest of that sentence.

“She means the past Ally.”

Everyone turned, watching as the rest of the group came into the room. Luke was thankful this lab seemed big enough, otherwise it would have been crowded in here. Rose immediately moved to Kanaya’s side while Dave plopped down beside Karkat. As Luke made eye contact with Ally, he saw her tense up, and he also saw as Gamzee set a careful hand on her shoulder, steering her to the opposite side of the room. Luke glanced up at him and sat back a bit, alarmed by the look Gamzee was giving him. It was of pure anger, although restrained. He was positive that if Ally wasn’t holding onto him as hard as he was holding onto her, he’d see the orange in the troll’s eyes that meant another rage was coming on.

“Remember when Ally was acting strange on our Derse?” Ivan prompted, drawing Luke’s attention back to the conversation at hand. He nodded, so Ivan continued. “It was because she was not fully awake on Derse, more so in a dream-like state. We think it was self-induced, so that she was able to focus fully on her single persona and keep the troll from taking charge of her mind the way she did Emma.”

“So that night when Alec’s dream tower blew up…” Luke glanced to Alec, then to Fran. “She really did only just then wake up?”

“What, did you think I was lying?” Ally snorted, and Luke frowned at her from across the room. She stuck her tongue out at him, shooting Dave a smirk when he bit back a laugh.

“Either way,” Fran interrupted, “I was hoping this would help us wake you up sooner so we can maybe try to prevent the worse things from happening if you had never woken up.” She turned to look fully at Ally. “Alec said that one of the main reasons someone wouldn’t be awake on Derse is because there’s a part of themselves that has never been explored. The reason you’re on Derse in the first place is because you hide parts of your personality, but was there a part of you that you had never acknowledged before waking up?”

Ally frowned. “I don’t even know what that’s supposed to mean.”

“What was your greatest weakness?” Alec offered, although even he looked unsure. “Like, were there certain things you never did as a kid? Because you just couldn’t?”

Luke looked down at his hands. He could name plenty of Ally’s weaknesses. He had a front row seat to any and every thing she did wrong when they were growing up. But then he remembered that Ally could feel what he was feeling, and he glanced up, trying to put a damper on his emotions. She was already frowning at him, and he watched as Gamzee sat up straighter next to her.

“Luke thinks he knows.” 

Dave rolled his eyes. “Do you guys ever stop arguing?”

Karkat snorted beside him, and Dave smirked at him while Fran sighed. 

“If you two could put aside your feelings for one second to help our session, that would be great.” Fran leveled her gaze to Luke in an even glare. “In the most respectful way possible, what’s your idea?”

Terezi elbowed him with a snicker, and he shifted uncomfortably. “I just...She loved everyone. Remember? She literally went and had a crush on anyone that looked her way.” Ally sat up quickly to argue, but Luke shouted over her, “Don’t even deny it! You loved everyone, and that’s the reason we couldn’t stop Emma!”

Ally crossed her arms and sat back, Gamzee placing a hand on her thigh while giving her a concerned look. Luke rolled his eyes, and Karkat finally spoke up. 

“Contrary to popular belief, love isn’t exactly an automatic fucking weakness.” He looked around to everyone, then sighed and closed his husktop. “Don’t give me those fucking looks. I know you all think I’m some pan-dead hopeless romantic, but I only read those stories for the educational benefit! Quadrants are very intricate and delicate. Dave, don’t fucking look at me like that. What I’m trying to say is, her loving everyone is definitely not her greatest weakness. In fact, based off what Kanaya and Rose have been spewing out of their squawkblisters lately, I’d say that’s the only fucking reason you’ve survived so long.”

“She is able to influence emotion-wise.” Alec mumbled, looking at his hands. “So it’d make sense if her love for us affected us so that we were more determined to carry on without us even knowing it.”

“Do you know what her weakness would be, then?” Ivan questioned. “If love kept her asleep, what will wake her up?”

“Is that a serious fucking question?” Karkat snorted, and Dave shoved his shoulder. Karkat rolled his eyes and pointed. “Her loverboy’s gonna get a fucking kick in the bulge out of this, but come on. Even wrigglers know what the fucking opposite of love is.”

Everyone followed his finger, Luke swallowing hard as his eyes landed on Gamzee.

“Hatred and rage. That’s the opposite of love.” Karkat crossed his arms, looking back to Fran. “Make her pissed, truly and righteously livid as the fucking Sufferer himself over something, and she’ll wake up.”

Luke tore his gaze away from Ally and Gamzee and looked back to the computer that was now patiently awaiting some sort of input. Fran hopped over to the screen, typed a few things in, then looked back up at Karkat with her grin lit up by the hundreds of flashing lights.

“Well, it’s ready to go. And I can’t think of a better person for the job to inspire rage than our little hate-cat himself.”

“I’m not a fucking meowbeast for the millionth fucking time--”

In the end, Karkat agreed to do it, but only because he thought no one else would do it right. He sat by the computer for two days, calling up Ally at every interval that Fran picked out for him. During this, Luke avoided the room as much as possible. He didn’t want to be anywhere near that. He tried to avoid Ally, but of course, there’s only so many places you can go on the meteor during mealtimes.

On the day that Karkat got Ally to finally wake up, Luke was seated across from her at the table, the few people there gathered to await the news if it had worked yet or not. Gamzee was on Ally’s right, as usual, grinning down at her while she told some story to Dave and Terezi, who were seated next to Luke. Kanaya was bringing over a plate of something when Luke finally heard what Ally was saying.

“...So in this universe, I was like, on the run from the cops ever since I was 18. Apparently, I sent a lot of gifts to Luke and Luke’s kid.” A soft smile appeared on her face. “I wasn’t able to be around, but even in another timeline, I was always looking out for him.”

“Gross.” Luke rolled his eyes, leaning forward to grab his glass.

Ally frowned at him, eyes narrowing sharply. “Wow, wasn’t aware you were actually listening to me for once.”

“How could I not?” He snorted. “You never fucking shut up. Especially about who you’re in love with. God, it’s so fucking annoying and I’m surprised no one else has told you yet.”

Ally’s hand clenched the table tightly as the room fell silent. Kanaya was frozen at the head of the table, eyes impossibly wide. “Told me what?”

“How much you sound like a slut.” He spit out bitterly, avoiding her eyes. “God, even when we have the chance to live our lives however we want, you’re still a fucking slut. You go around to anyone that’ll have you and you keep--”

“You better up and shut your mouth, motherfucker.”

Everyone at the table froze, looking to Gamzee. His warm smile had disappeared in seconds, and Luke subconsciously leaned away from the heat in the gaze directed at him.

“Now I’ve put up with lots of your hoofbeastshit for the sake of my fire-sister, here.” Gamzee told him, eyes narrowed to threatening slits. “She seems to listen real good to whatever up and comes our of your mouth, so I stopped myself for her because you mean a whole lot to her. But now I ain’t got no problems in telling you to motherfucking shut up.”

“Gam.” Ally whispered half heartedly, but her eyes were wide, shining in a way that made Luke think she was on the verge of tears. But Gamzee didn’t listen, low voice carrying on and washing over Luke.

“She’s done more for you motherfuckers than you’d ever get to knowing. What she’s put on the fucking line for you makes my pan get twisted most ways. That is not how you get your grateful reveries on, brother, by up and yelling all kinds of slanderous motherfucking words.” Her hand moved to rest on his leg under the table, and he quieted his voice a bit, but never once blinking or looking away. “I’ll stop for her. This time. But you best be warned if you say one more motherfucking thing to her that isn’t ‘Thank You’, I’ll have some new motherfucking paints for my murals.”

“Gam, stop.” Ally finally looked away from Luke, closing her eyes as she stood up. She tugged on Gamzee’s arm until he stood and followed her, but not before throwing one more glare Luke’s way. As the door slid shut behind them, Luke finally took a breath, shuddering.

“Smooth.” Terezi cackled, and Luke shot her a glare. No one else would look at him, and he couldn’t help but feel like they all agreed with Gamzee. Hell, he agreed with Gamzee. He was acting like a prick and he knew it. Did it really take getting his life threatened for him to see that?

“I did it!”

“ _We_ did it.” Fran shouted over Karkat, sprinting into the room after him. She grinned at everyone, oblivious to the tense mood. “Karkat finally got her to get angry and wake up!” She paused, frowning a bit as she saw the look on Luke’s face. “What’s up?”

“Luke just got--”

“Nothing.” Luke cut Terezi off, shooting her a glare even though he knew she couldn’t see it. By the grin on her face, he could bet that she knew what look he was giving her anyways. “Nothing’s wrong.” He put as much of a smile on his face as he could, looking up to her. “Congrats on your thing. What are you going to do next?”

Thankfully, Fran seemed to be able to sense that he didn’t want to talk about it. “Oh, not much, probably.” She shrugged while Karkat continued to stare at him. “Alec and I are picking up some weird signals and beeps, so Ivan and I were gonna check on that this evening. We were even able to lock onto past Alec in the last sequence!”

“Are you getting enough sleep?” Kanaya asked them, concerned. Luke took that moment to get up, leaving before anyone got the chance to say anything. Unfortunately, he wasn’t fast enough, and Dave caught up to him in the hallway.

“Hey, Luke.”

Luke groaned internally, not slowing down. “What do you want?” He took a deep breath, trying to steady himself. Gamzee had really shaken him with that little speech of his. Use his blood as paint? Jegus.

Dave caught up easily, the cape of his god tier outfit fluttering behind him. “Just to talk.”

“I doubt that.” Luke snorted, going to make a sharp turn, but Dave grabbed his shoulder with a surprisingly strong grip.

“Dude, hold on a second.” 

Luke rolled his eyes and turned to face him, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Okay, okay. What?”

“Go a bit easier on Ally.” He told him, expression neutral under his glasses. “I know it’s weird adjusting to all of this, but it’s just as hard on her, okay?”

“How could it be?” Luke argued, eyes narrowing. “She’s perfectly comfortable here! She’s got that weird troll--”

“His name is Gamzee.”

“Whatever it is, she’s with him all the fucking time. Who knows what they’re doing. She’s also got you constantly following her around.” Luke narrowed his eyes. “She’s got all the friends she wants and all the power she could need and it’s not like she even needs any of us anymore. How could this possibly be hard on her?”

Dave paused a minute, then asked, “Have you even asked her how she felt about being here?”

“...No. Why?” Luke took a step back, flustered. “It seems pretty obvious how she feels.”

Dave just shrugged. “Maybe think to ask her about it sometime. She’s had some stuff going on lately, and no, don’t give me that look, man. I’m not telling you. Just talk to her. Look, you used to best friends, right? Talk to her like you used to. Maybe that’ll help both of you. I know you don’t want to admit to it, but you miss her just as much as she misses you.” He set his hand on Luke’s shoulder, then gave him a half smile before backing away. “Just talk to her, dude. Not everything is what you think it is.”

Luke watched the hallway until Dave was gone, then looked down to the floor in front of his feet. Not everything is what you think it is? What the hell was that supposed to mean?

 

\- - - - -

 

“Fran, is your computer supposed to be making that noise?” Ally asked, frowning at the beeping on the screen. Something green was flashing in the troll’s language. Apparently Fran had learned how to read it in the six days they’d been here.

Fran glanced up from her charts she was reading, concerned. “It definitely isn’t supposed to be making that noise.” She leaned over to read the screen, then looked up to Ivan. “It’s saying targets locked on. Plural. Did you program it to find something lately?”

“Not since we woke Ally up.” Ivan responded. “What else could it have locked onto?”

“Is it still locked on to Ally’s DNA?” Rose asked, leaning to look at the configurations they had written down.

Ally made a face, “My DNA? How did you even get that?” But her question was ignored as Fran began typing things into the computer. Unfortunately, the beeping only grew louder and louder.

“Targets incoming.” Ivan read, eyes widening. “What is it locked onto? Did you transportalize something here?”

“It was only supposed to be transferring radio waves!” Fran was still frantically pushing buttons, and Ally scooted back from the table, wanting to be as far out of the mess as possible. Not like she’d be any help, anyways. “I mean, I guess it transported a phone to her once, the very first dream, but the transfer stopped as soon as it locked onto Alec’s tower…” Fran trailed off, looking up to Ivan. “It’s locked onto Alec still. Except something’s different about this Alec, a few of the main parts are out of place. Are we making paradox clones?”

“I don’t believe we have the proper equipment for paradox clones.” Rose told her, although she looked worried as well. “However, if you were trying to transport something, it seems as if you’ve opened us up to receiving as well. And that’s what’s happening. We’re receiving multiple things surrounding this variant of Alec.”

“Something is coming here?” Fran’s voice pitched higher, but the beeping drowned her out as a glow began from the far platform in the room that led up to the main hall. _Now was not the time to be coming down here,_ Ally thought. 

As if following her train of thought, Ivan asked, “Wasn’t that platform disconnected a few weeks ago?”

“Yeah, but I hooked it up to the computer to use some of it’s power…” Fran groaned, hand slapping onto her forehead. “Shoot, I bet whatever’s coming is going to--”

A loud crack echoed throughout the room, followed by a quick flash of yellow light. Ally recovered the quickest, jumping to her feet as she saw what was in front of them. Fran and Ivan scrambled to their feet as well while Rose’s usually stoic face finally cracked.

The four teenagers on the platform stared back with similarly shocked expressions.

One of them was the first to speak. “What the fuck? Mom?”

To which Rose responded, “Well, I could say the same to you.”

“Do you...know them?” Fran asked quietly, eyes lingering over the boy on the far right. His tanned skin contrasted his yellow god tier outfit, green eyes shining out in almost fear. He looked so familiar, that expression--a mixture of worry and surprise--something she’d seen before.

“In a sense.” Rose responded, brow furrowed. At that moment, the computer began beeping again, the platform beginning to glow. Fran’s eyes widened.

“Um, if you didn’t want to risk growing a new arm or anything, I suggest you get off of that.” 

Thankfully, one of the boys seemed to understand this, pulling off one of the girls while Ally lunged forward to grab the other two. Another bright light flashed through the room right as they moved, and two more teenagers appeared on the platform.

“What the hell, Fran!” Ally shouted, blinking to adjust her eyes once more. “Stop transporting people here, it’s crowded enough as it is!”

“It’s not like I did it on purpose!” She shouted back, jumping over to the computer to punch something in. As the computer began beeping again, Fran finally just yanked the plug out, shutting down everything. Ivan sighed, turning to the new people in the room once again.

Ally noticed who she was holding onto and blushed, taking a step back. “Uh, sorry for grabbing you like that. We just needed you to move.”

“No problem!” The girl answered cheerily, pushing some of her blonde hair out of her face. “Uh, where are we, though?”

“On a meteor in space.” Ivan answered, one eyebrow slightly raised. “It appears we’ve found some more god tier humans.” They all turned to look at him in surprise, and the boy who was now on the platform grinned.

“That must be Fran and Ivan! Oh man, it’s cool to finally meet you guys!”

Fran and Ivan shared a look, and Fran asked, “Uh, do we know you?”

“Well, not technically.” He grinned sheepishly, looking around to everyone in the room. “But I was doing some travelling lately, through paradox space. I saw all of you a few times each!”

“You didn’t tell me about that!” The girl next to him frowned like she was being kept out of some secret. Ally narrowed her eyes, leaning a bit closer as the blonde girl next to her asked, “Are those dog ears?”

“Oh, yeah.” She giggled, “Had some mishaps with prototyping kernelsprites.”

“Man, I feel that.” Fran sighed, and Rose asked, “Maybe we should all introduce ourselves? The others will be curious as soon as they find out about you here.”

“Others?” The boy in yellow asked, and Ally looked over to him, pausing before saying. “Yeah, there’s tons of people here. I, uh, by any chance, are you Ambrose?”

“Who, me?” He shook his head. “Afraid not. My name is Jake.”

Fran’s eyes widened, and as Ally caught the feeling of revelation emanating from her, she turned to look. She grinned back at Ally, thinking clearly so that her feelings carried her thought to Ally. _That’s your brother! He was the original scratcher!_

“I’m Roxy.” Continued the girl next to him and Ally, and she pointed across the way. “That’s Dirk and that’s Janey! We were in kind of a tight spot when you zapped us all here, so thank you, I guess!”

“I’m Jade!” Added the girl with the dog ears, and the boy next to her grinned wider. “John.”

“I’m Fran, that’s Ivan.”

“Rose.” Which was answered by a, “Hey mom!”

Ally grinned, watching Roxy. “I’m Ally.”

“Hey Ally.” She smiled back, giving her a slight nudge on the shoulder. “Love your hair.” Ally blushed in response, looking down to her shoes. Before she could mumble anything embarrassing, the door to the lab slid open, revealing a shocked looking Dave, Alec and Karkat. They were silent, everyone staring at each other before Karkat shouted, “Is this a god damned family reunion?”

“It appears so.” Rose answered, looking back to Roxy with a smile, who waved in return. “John and Jade have finally joined us as well.”

“A little sooner than planned.” John grinned, and Jade waved quickly. “Hey Dave! Hi Karkat!” Karkat glared at her and Dave was frozen, face neutral, but Ally could feel the fear and confusion seeping off of him. Funny enough, she could sense the same thing coming from Dirk across the room.

“Um, I’m Alec.” Alec introduced himself, eyes flying from person to person. “Do...Do you all know each other?”

Ally smirked at him. “Technically. It’s okay, they’re cool.” Roxy smirked beside her again, and Ally blushed further, shooting Ivan a glare when he raised an eyebrow at her.

“Your Jegus must be so proud of you.” Karkat sighed. “Fucking taking in anything that wanders our way…” He spun around, waving his hands above his head. “Come on, let’s go fucking introduce you to everyone. Again.”

Introductions and discussions took up the better part of an hour with Fran explaining how everyone was related to each other. Luke ended up drawing some charts for her, and Roxy and Ally giggled their whole way through it. Ally seated herself next to Dave, who seemed the most uneasy about meeting his kind-of-brother Dirk, and she was able to help ease their emotions a bit so they had a civil discussion. Jake and Alec seemed to get on rather well once Fran explained it to them, and John and Jane were eagerly telling stories about their prank wars. Jade listened on in fascination to Jake’s stories about the island, and Roxy and Rose traded tales about who had been the drunkest (and how poor of a decision that had been). And then once everyone was comfortable and talking easily, Fran dropped the bomb.

“So, now we can talk about how Ally and Dirk are going to save everyone!”

The entire room quieted, looking to Ally and Dirk, who both stared at each other. Dirk was mirroring Ally’s emotions exactly, clearly thinking, _Excuse me, what now?_ Ally swallowed, then looked to Fran. “Uh, what?”

Alec sat up a bit further on the couch from where he was seated next to John and Jake. “Uh, Fran, maybe now’s not the time? Since, you know, they just got here.”

“We don’t have much more time to waste.” Ivan told him, politely scooting away from where Roxy had thrown an arm around him. She just shrugged and leaned on Ally instead, who blushed while Ivan continued. “The troll will be here any day now. No doubt she caught on to the signals we were transmitting while trying to wake Ally up.”

“Wake you up?” Roxy not-quite whispered, and Ally shrugged, “Later.”

Alec still seemed uneasy, but gave Fran a nod. She smiled up at everyone from where she was cross legged on the ground, pulling up the charts once again. 

“So, for our whole session, we’ve been told that the line of heart must end because a heart player is what finally defeats this troll. Our troll that’s bugging us, not the big Codesce/Lord English boss combo you all are going to fight later. Our troll’s name is Lucius, and she gained mind control over one of our friends. So, they’ve been trying to kill Ally in every timeline so that she can’t ascend and kill Lucius. Fortunately for us, Emma made the mistake of killing Ally on her Sacrificial Slab, so Ally _did_ ascend and is a full heir of heart. Weirdly enough, there’s another heart player here in the alpha timeline to help her out. This is how I think it’s going to work.”

She pointed to the family tree that had Dirk on it. “Dirk, to make a long story short, you kind of helped create the line of heart. You’re related to Emma who’s related to Ben, who died because he was part of the line of heart. Yeah, that’s how far into it they were going. You and--”

“They’re going to be trying to kill you and Ally.” Ivan interrupted, shooting Fran a smirk. “While the familial relations are interesting, they are not pertinent information.”

“Yeah.” She giggled. “I mean, not to make light of the situation, but we’re definitely going to win. Ivan and Alec can see future timelines and stuff, so we know the outcome is positive, they just don’t know the details.”

“How the hell can they see future timelines if they aren’t god tier?” Karkat asked, eyes narrowed, and Ivan and Alec looked at each other. Alec shrugged, and as one, their outfits switched back into their god-tier pajamas. Karkat rolled his eyes. “Seer of Time and Mage of Light. Because it’s not fucking useful to know we have some of the smartest players among us.”

“We were going to tell you eventually!” Ally spun around to look at him, glad that the attention wasn’t on her anymore. All of this information diverging into one timeline was freaking her out. Where was Gamzee when you needed him? “We just didn’t know if you were a threat at first, so they hid it. And then I guess they just forgot.”

He leaned back with a grumble, and Fran took that as an opportunity to continue. “So, basically, Ally and Dirk are going to be the priority in our fight. Protect them so they can do their thing.”

“And what would that thing be?” Dirk asked, shifting again beside Ally. “As far as I’m aware, I can’t do much except for destroying feelings, and I don’t think that’s going to be helpful in a fight.”

“And I can make people feel things.” Ally sighed. “What am I gonna do, make them scared? Dirk will get rid of their courage?”

“Kind of!” Fran sat up, still smiling. Ally could feel Roxy think beside her, _Man, does she ever stop? It’s getting creepy._

“Ally, as an heir of heart, you’re probably able to inherit your other selves abilities. Technically, in some timey wimey wibbly wobbly backwards way, Dirk’s an alternate version of you, just like Alec and Jake and Ambrose are all versions of each other. Probably. So, since he’s here, you should be able to like, amp up both of your abilities.”

Everyone was quiet, and Luke finally said, “Fran, that literally makes no sense. At all.”

“No, I think I kind of get it.” Dave told him, and John rolled his eyes, “I doubt it. I bet Rose didn’t even follow that.”

“Actually, I think she’s on to something.” Rose told him, then turned to look at Ally on the other end of the couch. “Maybe not right, exactly, but she’s close. While I don’t think you and Dirk are related, I do think your abilities will compliment each other. Remember when we were discussing your splinters?”

“The other me’s I see all the time?” Ally asked as Dirk mumbled, “She has splinters, too?”

“Yes, those.” Rose looked to Fran. “I’ve been looking into it, and I believe Ally may have reached far up in her god-tier echeladder, per se. Because of this, I believe she’s inheriting the power and abilities of every splinter of herself, namely the different versions of her in those timelines she’s been seeing. I’ve noted her discussing herself as a Knight of Heart, a Bard, a Prince like Dirk, a Witch, a Sylph, and a Seer. Although only three of those were the scratched sessions, so those abilities of the Knight, Bard, and Prince would be the strongest. The Sylph comes from Ben’s timeline, yes? So those powers may aid and help, as would the Witch’s, which is from Ambrose’s timeline, but you cannot fully use those. Emma and the troll would have been killing all of your other selves so that you could not inherit their power.”

“So that’s why I’ve been seeing them?” Ally asked quietly. “Because I inherited their abilities, I inherited them as a whole person?”

“Exactly.” Rose answered, then turned back to Fran. “Dirk is just an added bonus of destruction, the key to it all. While Ally supplied most of the power, Dirk will be the final shove that will allow you to defeat Lucius. In my opinion, at least.”

“Shit, mom’s a smart cookie.” Roxy giggled, and Ally only mustered up a half smile. Luke watched from the other side of the room, bothered. If she and Dirk were so powerful, why did they even need anyone else? Why was he still here?

“Cool! So we can start coming up with a plan, then!” Fran cheered, and pulled up the other charts Luke had drawn. “So, she’s most likely bringing her robots…”

Fran and Alec talked strategy with most of the trolls for an hour or so before everyone decided they had had enough for one day. Dave and Dirk went off to continue their heart to heart while Jade, Jake, and Alec went in the opposite direction, still discussing the island. Ally watched them all go with a bitter feeling in her chest, then turned away, planning on going to find Gamzee. He liked listening to her talk about her brother, and that’s exactly what she felt like doing.

Instead, she found Karkat sitting alone in the hallway.

He looked up as she rounded the corner, immediately rolling his eyes. “What, didn’t want to stay and talk about how we’re going to be fighting for our lives soon?”

“What, you’re not excited by the imminent threat of death?” She snorted back, plopping down next to him in the hallway. He only grunted and shifted a bit away from her, and she frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong, Richards.” Karkat grumbled, but Ally only scooted closer to him. Nerves were radiating off of him in waves, his emotions so strong that she probably could have read his thoughts if she wanted to.

After she nudged him a third time with her elbow, he finally flung his hands in the air. “Fine! Fine! I’ll fucking say it! You want to know what’s wrong? I’m fucking terrified! A lot of my friends have died already and now probably a ton are going to when we go off to fight and I don’t want to lose any more of them, okay?” He leaned back against the wall, eyes boring into hers. “I don’t want to lose anyone but I know I’m not strong enough to protect them and I’m just...We’re all so young. And I’m scared.”

Ally swallowed hard, eyes searching his face for a moment before she nodded. She leaned back against the wall with him, and at the same time, they let out a huge sigh.

“Yeah.” Ally mumbled quietly, listening to the distant chatter of her excited friends. “Me too.”All of them had found their relatives--paradox clones or otherwise--and it was happy for them. They had things to reminisce about, stories to compare, plans to make. None of them had to worry about how they were supposed to save everyone when they couldn’t even figure themselves out.

“You can do it, though.”

Ally looked over at Karkat, mortified. “Please don’t tell me I just said that out loud.”

He shook his head, crinkling his nose a bit. “No, uh, I think you projected your thoughts? With your ‘strong emotions’ or whatever. Like, the emotional reading you did that one time on Dave. When he and I--that’s beside the point.” He sighed, voice dropping down to a more natural volume level. “Look, I know Fran and Vriska-- and even Kanaya a bit--have put a lot of pressure on you about the whole savior thing. And I understand that. Apparently, I’m supposed to be the new herald of our race or something when this is all over.” Ally snorted, and he let a smile slip. “Yeah, I know. But seriously, you have nothing to worry about.” His face grew serious again, and she turned to listen to him.

“From everything Dave and Alec have been telling me, you’re an amazing fighter. You’ve done things in fights to save people without even knowing it. It’s instinct for you. And even more than that, you’re a fantastic person. Hell, I’d be somewhat tolerant of living here for another three years if I could spend part of it with you. You’re not fucking delusional like some of the people here.”

“Is Karkat Vantas complimenting me?” Ally shot him a shit-eating grin, and Karkat rolled his eyes.

“ _The point_ I’m trying to make is, you need to give yourself more credit.” His hands rested on his knees, which were now drawn up to his chest. Ally mirrored the motion, smiling as he continued, “You’re going to do great. With you out there, that’s one less person I have to worry about dying.”

She knocked their knees together. “You’re not so bad yourself, Kat. In fact, I think I’d very much like to meet a race of trolls that are all like you.”

He snorted. “We could probably do without the colorful vocabulary.”

Ally laughed, and Karkat snickered, and most of the tension was sifting away. _Knight of Blood_ , Ally thought to herself as she teased Karkat again about his shoes, _He plays the part well._

 

\- - - - -

 

“So, you and Dave, huh?”

Ally spun around in the empty lab room, eyes wide in the darkness. She blinked a few times, and Luke frowned. He must have caught her in the middle of a daydream or whatever she was calling it.

“Huh?”

Yeah, definitely a daydream. She had found her way to the empty rooms lately--with or without Gamzee--and was trying to get a better hold on her other selves. According to what Alec and Jake were talking about the other day, they were all getting closer to convergence. He didn’t know what that meant, but it sounded like a good thing. As he was leaving the room, Fran was muttering something about something getting closer, and he decided it needed to be resolved now. So he set off, determined to talk to her. Luke sighed, stepping further into the lab and flicking a light on. Ally blinked again and he repeated, “You and Dave are a thing?”

She frowned at him, hopping off the table she had been on. “Uh, no, we aren’t? Who told you that?”

She was making moves to leave the room, but Luke sidestepped in front of her, blocking her way to the doorway. They _needed_ to talk. Their weird little feud of avoidance had gone on for over a week now, and it was killing him. He couldn’t stand not being able to talk to her, and he decided that they needed to clear the air of whatever was between them.

“No one told me that.” He answered, watching her carefully. She definitely looked like a cornered animal now, and he hated that he was doing that to her. “I just assumed.”

“Well, you know what they say about assuming. Makes an ass out of--”

“You and me, yeah, I’ve heard that.” Deflecting with humor, this wasn’t going well. “Look, can we talk?”

“About what?” Ally asked bitterly, taking a couple steps back. “About how you don’t approve of any relationship I have? Who says you need to approve it anyways?”

“I don’t!” Luke argued, stepping forward. “That’s not what the point is Ally. I just want to know why you won’t talk to me. And I’m--”

“Because you’ve been a dick to me! I don’t have to talk to anyone who treats me like shit--”

“I know I’ve been a dick, but I have my reasons, and--”

“Reasons? There’s no fucking excuse for treating me like this and you know it. You’ve just been jealous this whole time because someone is finally giving me the respect I deserve and there’s no way you could--”

“It’s because I love you!”

Ally froze, back pressed against the far wall. Luke’s heart was hammering in his chest, just a foot away from her. Apparently, they had walked the entire length of the room, but he hadn’t noticed. Of course he hadn’t noticed. He was oblivious, always oblivious when she was around, and all he could do was watch her shine.

“What?” Ally breathed, green eyes flickering around his face in confusion. “No, you’re lying, you’re just trying--”

“You know I’m not lying.” He told her, voice surprisingly calm for how hard it was to breathe. God, it had taken him long enough to finally admit it to himself, and now here he was, saying it to her face. “Even without your weird emotion powers, you could always tell when I was lying. Even over pesterchum. You’ve always been able to tell, and I’ve never been more serious than I am right now.”

She was quiet, watching him carefully. He could see it now, this was it. She finally understood him, and he understood her, and they were going to be okay--

“So that’s it?”

Luke physically took a step back, heart dropping. “Excuse me?”

“So that’s it then?” She shrugged, brow furrowed. “You just come in here and tell me you love me and expect me to forgive the way you’ve been treating me?” Luke was silent, and she sighed. “Luke, you’ve been a jerk for over a month now, and even kind of before that. As much as I would love to forget all of that and run away with you and get married or whatever, I can’t. I can’t just forgive you for all of that. At least, not yet, you know?”

“I, I mean…” Luke stuttered, “It’s just--”

“Just what? You were allowed to do that because you loved me and you were acting like an immature grade schooler with a crush?”

“No! God.” Luke groaned, rubbing a hand down his face. “I’m not trying to excuse it, I’m just trying to get you to understand me.”

“I do understand you, Luke.” She crossed her arms, reminding him a lot of when he got scolded back in school. “You liked me, but you handled it poorly. For whatever reason, you wouldn’t just admit to me that you liked me. Or maybe you couldn’t admit it to yourself, or say it in front of Ivan--I don’t know, and I don’t care. The fact is, you had a crush that you handled poorly, and so you acted out in an immature manner. And that’s the part I can’t forgive.”

“Not even if I said I’ve loved you since we met?”

“In person or online?”

He blushed, “Maybe both?”

Her gaze softened a bit, but she didn’t relax. “Love’s a big word, Luke. Are you sure?”

He nodded, and she sighed. It was silent between them, both obviously deep in thought. He was hoping this would change things between them, but all it did was make things worse.

“When did you become so smart?” He asked quietly, and she laughed. His heart clenched a bit at the sound, reaffirming what he was already so sure about.

“This game gives you lots of time to think, you know?” She smiled up at him, then set a hand on his arm. “Look, I get it. I do. I totally understand being head over heels for someone ever since you’ve met.” He could swear he saw a flicker of something in her eyes, a memory--but she continued, “But I just need some time. I’ve gotta sort myself out before I can drag anyone else into this mess. Okay?” He nodded once more, and she smirked as she slid past him. “I’m not saying no. Just, not right now.”

His eyes lifted, widening a bit. “Seriously?”

She smiled back at him, pausing in the doorway. “We gotta get ready to fight. See you out there.” With that, she left the room, and Luke was left with the promise that maybe there was in fact a future for them.

 

\- - - - -

 

A blaring alarm woke Alec up from where he had fallen asleep at the table. Next to him, John raised his head in a similar fashion, both of them reaching for their glasses. Books were still spread open around them, papers strewn on the floor and bits of machine on the counters. They must have fallen asleep last night while looking for any more answers.

“The fuck is that?” Roxy mumbled, looking around in confusion. She sat up stiffly on the counter, shaking bread crumbs off her shirt.

“I didn’t know this meteor had any alarms.” Kanaya mused, and was about to wake Rose up when the door flew open, revealing a disheveled Ally. She was out of breath, eyes going immediately to Alec’s.

“She’s here.”

The room erupted then, everyone moving at once for the door. In the hallways, everyone was running around at varying levels of readiness, either reaching for the strife specibus or trying to wake up. In minutes, everyone was gathered on the uppermost deck, looking up into the darkness of space.

“Well, that’s only a little bit terrifying.” Dave muttered, both John and Karkat turning to elbow him.

Above them, a dozen red ships were sailing towards them, the same bright red that had followed the group from timeline to timeline, universe to universe. And even now, when they had thought they’d have time to regroup, Emma had still found them.

“But how?” Luke asked, and Ivan frowned further.

“She must have found our signals when we were locating Ally in the Derse dreamscape--”

“--And traced them here.” Fran swallowed. “Guys, I’m so sorry, I thought we’d have more time--”

“No time to worry about that now.” Karkat rounded on them, looking to Vriska where she stood next to Luke and Terezi. “What’s the plan?”

“Well, we never really came up with a solid one for this problem yet.” Vriska told him, and Terezi added, “We were mostly worried about the Condesce.”

“Well, that would work for this, wouldn’t it?” Ally asked, and Ivan shook his head. “No, there’s a considerable amount of robots, not to mention Emma--”

They were cut off by a blast of cannon fire, hitting the ground just to the left of the group. A few of them fell over, and Karkat shouted, “Okay, cool, everyone just go fight stuff! Girl John, you’re on healing duty. Everyone else, don’t die.”

Jane looked to Roxy, “Did he mean me?” Roxy shrugged, but before she could answer, robots began pouring out of the ships, and everyone launched into battle. 

Luke lost Ally sooner than he would have liked to admit. It was as if as soon as any battle began, she disappeared. He’d add that to the list of things she did that pissed him off. But, later. He was kind of busy right now.

The fight began just as it did on Fran’s Prospit. The robots attacked in groups, hoping to overwhelm the fighter. Thankfully, their armor wasn’t impenetrable, and Luke’s sword sliced through metal limb after metal limb, hacking them down until they sparked and dropped to the ground.

“Hey Lukey.”

Luke spun, watching as Roxy dropped to the ground behind him with a grin on her face and a robot’s head in her hands. “I got a plan.”

“Yeah? What’s that?” He asked, ducking to avoid laser fire.

“Me and D Stri could get into the ship and stop the robots.” She explained, chucking the robot’s head at an advancing one. “We have the necessary mad hacker skills. Only thing is, we need some body guards to help us in there. You’re a big guy, you in?”

He looked at her for a moment, absolutely baffled that she could be so calm while there were literally a hundred robots surrounding them. “Uh, yeah, sure. I can do that.”

“Cool!” She grinned, waving over to where Dirk was next to John. “Plan is a go! Let’s roll, boys!” Luke smirked. She and Ally have definitely been hanging out a lot together. As one, the four of them leaped into the air, heading for the main ship.

“On your right!”

Luke spun out of the way just as Fran went zipping by him, wielding one of Ally’s old swords. She sliced one of the arms clean off, sending it spinning, only for it to be slashed through the chest by Ivan, knives in his hands.

“We’ll cover you until you all get to the ship!” Ivan told him, Fran shooting him an eerily pleasant thumbs up before she spun around, leading the way through the fray. 

On the ground, Alec was back to back with Jake, fighting off the robots that were trying to get to Jane. Unsurprisingly, Karkat had tried to fight a large group of robots and came out with a huge gash on his arm, and Jane was working to heal him. 

“What a superb fighting partner!” Jake called over his shoulder. “We’ll have to engage in a tussle sometime ourselves!”

“Yeah, maybe after a bit of a vacation first.” Alec laughed, happy once again to be reunited with his shield. Even though there was a large chunk in the wood missing from when Emma had hit it, it still held up well under the robot’s fire. 

“Karkat, hold still!”

“No! She’s about to go on yet another suicide mission! Alec, what the hell is wrong with your sister?”

Alec turned back to look at Karkat, who was pointing up into the sky. Following his finger, Alec searched into the darkness and saw a large group of around twenty robots surrounding something. And flying straight at them was Ally.

“Jegus.” Alec swore, making a move to back off from Jake. “I’ll go--”

“Nah, I got her.” Dave interrupted, taking off immediately and ignoring Karkat’s angry shouts for him to ‘get his ass back here’. Alec watched him go, a bit worried, but was soon distracted by the robots coming for him and Jake again. He filed the worry to the back of his mind, knowing Ally could handle herself. It wasn’t the robots he was worried about, it was what was behind them, and he knew that’s what Ally was going for.

Back towards the main ship, Ivan and Fran were holding off the line of robots while the group quickly flew through the hole in the ship that John had made with his hammer.

“You’d think she’s use something strong enough to deflect a hammer.” Dirk muttered quietly, eyes shifting quickly behind his shades. “Any idea which way we’re going?”

“Nope.” Roxy popped the ‘p’, floating along and looking through the little air vents. They must have been down in the main hull, there wasn’t much but metal fixtures and piping down here. “Figured we’d just kinda go towards the busiest part.”

“Also the most dangerous. Great plan.” Luke sighed, bitterly readjusting the straps of his jetpack. Not for the first time, he was wishing he would have just sucked it up and ascended to God Tier with the rest of them.

“Oh, would you look at that.” 

Everyone looked to Roxy, who was grinning in front of a door. In bright red letters, it read MAIN ELECTRIC BOARDS in the troll language. “How convenient.” John laughed, and they wrenched open the door to reveal a room lined and lined with screens and keyboards and enough flashing lights to make Luke’s head spin. At the end of the room was a large window that looked out onto the fight, flashes of explosions reflecting off of the glass. They must have been directly underneath the main part of the front of the ship.

“Man, I’m glad you guys are good at this stuff.” Luke’s eyes widened, walking in slowly with his sword clenched tightly in his hand. The group followed him, Roxy and Dirk immediately moving for the main section of screens.

“Years of isolation will do that to you.” Dirk told him, a hint of a smile on his face. “Look at Alec. He’s almost as big of a nerd as we are.”

John traced a finger along one of the boards. “There’s so much in here. How are you guys ever going to find the right buttons or codes or whatever?”

“You’re not going to.”

Everyone spun, looking back to the doorway. Flanked by six robots on either side stood a troll easily as tall as Ivan and Gamzee. Her long flowing hair reached nearly to the floor, curling on the ends like little tentacles. Each clawed hand was resting on her hips, and her large blue eyes were narrowed in their direction. Luke swallowed hard. So this must be her.

“Lucius?” He asked, hoping his voice sounded stronger than he felt.

“Clever boy.” She smirked, the light shining off of her sharpened teeth. “In fact, I’m impressed you even got in here. It’s too bad this is as far as you’ll get.” She flicked one of her fingers and the robots on either side of her jumped into action.

“Roxy, keep working on the code!” Dirk shouted, whipping out his sword. “We’ll cover you!” Without hesitation, he jumped into the fight, John following him. It was tight in the smaller room, Luke’s jetpack clanking into robot after robot, and for the first time, he was worried. Man, he could really use some of Ally’s endless courage right now.

 

 

“Ally! Heads up!”

Ally spun around, sword following quickly after her, the green blade slashing through the air and through the robot that had tried to catch her from behind. She was close to the center, she could feel it. Dave was a few robots behind, but she needed to get through, she had to find her--

“Emma!” She shouted, finally cutting down the last robot that stood in her way. Before her on a floating platform stood Emma, eyes the same glowing blue as they had been every time they’d seen her. She had tossed her jetpack aside, fingers clenching tightly onto the thin-bladed sword that she had stolen from an Alec a lifetime ago.

“Emma, stop this!” Ally pleaded, floating down to the platform. The sounds of the battle still rang around her, along with the emotions of everyone pouring in from every angle. Her chest was aching as she begged, “Emma, put an end to this, please.”

“You think you can stop this? That anyone can?” Emma called back, a bitter grin on her face. “No one can! We’re going to remove you from existence! Not like it’ll be that hard, seeing as I’ve already killed you several times over.” She cocked her head, raising her sword. “How’s Ben, by the way?”

With a growl, Ally leaped into the air, bringing her sword down to collide with Emma’s in a shrill clang of metal that echoed all around them. Emma shoved back, knocking Ally back enough that she landed on the ground again. With a fierce cry, Emma began swinging at Ally, sword whipping around much faster than Ally’s heavier one could.

“You brought this on yourself!” Emma shouted, driving Ally back to the opposite end of the platform. She could hear Dave still fighting behind her and hoped he was okay. “You and all of your friends! It’s all your fault!”

“You’re the one who let her mind get taken over!” Ally argued back, kicking out at Emma with her foot. The time for fighting clean was over. The extra space allowed Ally to rear back and swing, the force of the cut knocking Emma’s sword out of her hands. With another powerful kick, she had Emma on the ground, her sword poised above her.

“You couldn’t do it.” Emma growled, even as she struggled to take a proper breath, “You couldn’t kill anyone. You couldn’t even save anyone, Ally. You’ll never be the hero you wanted to be.”

Ally paused, chest heaving. _You’ll never be the hero._ The words echoed in her head, bringing back painful memory after painful memory. _You’ll never be able to save everyone._ Ben, Alec, Fran, Luke, _Ambrose, Bro_ \--she never could save anyone. She lost them all. She could never save anyone.

And then--a piercing light, straight from her chest. She shrieked in pain, sword faltering. Emma covered her eyes, the light almost as bright as the stars thousands of miles away. It was coming from the center of her chest, pain flooding her entire body. She dropped to one knee, her sword falling from her hands, and as she collided with the metal, it felt like she was leaving her body.

Lifting her eyes, her vision zoomed across the battlefield, zeroing in on a distant window, and inside of that window stood Luke amid a fight of his own.

“You’re mine!” Lucius was yelling, swinging her staff at him again and again. Luke was able to deflect most of the blows, but he knew it was an uneven fight. She was going to win, and he could feel the helpless despair set over the room that always preceded a death.

With two more blows, Luke left his chest exposed, and the troll cackled. “You’re mine, human.” She raised her staff, the malicious end carved into a terrifying point, and brought it down into his chest--

Luke frowned, expecting the blow, but it never came. Seeing a light shine through his eyelids, he opened his eyes, mouth falling open. 

In between the point of her staff and his chest was a large field of glowing pink forming a shield. It surrounded his body, the brightest point being where she was trying to stab through. It was as if the light was preventing her from stabbing him.

“No!” She shrieked, stabbing at him again and again. “How is she doing this? It’s not possible!” She tried for a leg, an arm, but all of her blows glanced off the shield of light. “We killed the knight! She shouldn’t be able to protect you!”

“Knight of Heart.” John whispered, grinning. “Of course! Her love for you is so strong that it’s physically protecting you! You can’t be killed!” Another robot came after him, making him turn away, and Luke grinned up at the troll.

“Change of plans, Lucy. It’s your turn to die.” He brought his sword up, and with a renewed vigor, began slashing at her, putting her on the defensive.

He heard Roxy call out, “I’m in! Say goodbye to the evil robots!” and then felt a dull pain in his head, but pushed it aside. The troll was about to meet her makers.

A sharp blow to the head brought Ally back to her body, the dull glow fading from her chest. With a sharp intake of breath, she looked over, seeing Emma climbing back to her feet. She swung a fist, catching Emma in the side and knocking her back down again. Emma’s chest was heaving as she laid back on the ground, and Ally slowly stood, fists clenched. Whether it was her god tier energy or just because of what she’d seen, she felt stronger. Her energy was coming back to her, she was ready to put an end to this. 

Emma was still on the ground, glowing blue eyes defiantly staring up at Ally. Ally bit back a cry as she looked down at her, saying instead, "Don't make me do this, Emma."

Emma laughed, blood still trickling from the cut on her head. "Do what? Like you could even beat me." Bruises covered her arms, and Ally could feel just how weak she was getting.

"I could!" Ally cried out, unable to hold in her anger anymore. "I've always been stronger than you thought I was, Emma! I was always in your fucking shadow when I deserved to be center stage! And here we are now, and I hold your life in my hands."

"My life? You dare think you could beat the Witch of Life?" Emma growled, "I am the one who holds that, and I alone. The second you do anything to me, I could end your life."

"No you couldn't!" Ally pleaded. "You didn't ascend, I know you couldn't! You're not god tier, and you know why!"

"It's because I don't have a sacrificial slab or quest bed." Emma spat, glaring at her. "Lucius told me so."

The battle was still going on around them, but Ally felt as if time had them trapped here. She took it as a sign that this needed to happen, she needed to try and save her once more. "It's because the game set out a different quest for you. Your quest wasn't to rise to power, or to control anyone." She frowned, voice still with it's pleading tone. "Your quest was to overcome the darkness, to stop this insane power hungry struggle. You were supposed to learn how to trust your friends!"

"Friends? What friends?" Emma shouted, but Ally could see the pain in her eyes. "You all didn't care about me. You only wanted me around to be your little pawn in your own game. I'm more than a pawn, Ally Richards. I'm a _queen._ So I know I'm right when I know what my purpose in this game was."

"Then why haven't you found your quest bed?"

"I didn't have one!"

"That's not true!" Ally shrieked, taking a threatening step forward. "I knew where your bed was this whole fucking time!"

This seemed to make Emma stop, eyes widening ever so slightly. "What?" She breathed.

"I knew where it was the whole time." Ally deflated, heartbroken. "I found it on my quest, I found it but I couldn't tell you because I was afraid of what you'd do if you ascended. You were already so dangerous and so secretive that I decided to keep a secret of my own. But you didn't learn to trust your friends, you didn't learn that there's consequences to your actions, and you _didn't_ learn to trust in me!" She looked down, expression dark. "And when you destroyed the gates, I just knew. I knew there was no hope for you. You wouldn't learn."

Emma was silent, and Ally whispered again, "Please, Emma. Please. I don't want to do this. Come back to us, get rid of that troll. I know you remember the poem, I know you can do it. Come back. Don't make me do this."

Emma stood slowly, and for a second, Ally's chest tightened with hope. But then Emma was reaching for her sword, shouting, "You kept my destiny from me!" She lunged forward and Ally dove out of the way, leaping into the air as soon as she could to get away from Emma. The blue glow had flooded her eyes once more, and she continued to slash at the air, trying to get at Ally.

Ally swallowed hard. The girl she knew was gone, this time. Gone for good.

"I'm so sorry, Emma." She whispered, raising her hands and aiming at Emma. "I'm so sorry."

A pink glow spread around her hands just as the robots began to fall around them. A similar glow was mirrored in Emma’s chest, making her jaw go slack. Ally was inside her heart, inside her emotions, swimming around in all of the hatred and the anger and the sadness of being taken advantage of. With a tug, she took ahold of her heart, and reached into her soul.

Emma shrieked, and three more robots fell from the air, sparking. Dave cut down another robot and looked over to Ally, who was now completely encased in the pink glow. Emma was surrounded in what looked like the ghost of a fire, whipping into the air around her.

One more tug, another shriek from Emma that brought her to her knees, and Ally could see the beginnings of her soul start to leave her body. Bits and pieces were flying out into the pink fire that surrounded her, bright green spurts that disappeared as soon as they hit the open air. With every piece that faded away, Ally felt it pass through her as if a bit of her own heart was leaving with it.

 

 

“I got the last robot!” John shouted, eagerly flying through the air with his hammer. Luke didn’t let himself be distracted. With three more swings of his sword, he had the troll down on her knees. 

“Not possible.” She hissed again, blue eyes seemingly alight with hatred. “You’ll never win! Even if you defeat me, there’s still the Condesce! She’ll kill you all in a heartbeat, and she’s not even the worst of your enemies!”

“Well, we’ll at least have you out of the way.” Luke growled, shoving her arms aside. With a roar, he thrust his sword forward, slicing directly into her chest. Immediately, the glow stopped, and she whispered once more, “Not possible…”

As her body slumped to the ground, Roxy let out a cheer, and John sent the last robot flying. They all shouted in excitement, and turned to look out at the battle.

Robots were dropping all over the place, and as the air cleared, they caught sight of a bright pink glow on the other side of the meteor.

“What the hell is that?” Dirk asked, and Luke’s eyes widened.

“Ally.”

 

 

The last robot fell from the sky, and Ally cried out. She was growing slower, energy spent. Emma’s soul was flickering now, ready to go out, when Ally saw it.

The blue glow in her eyes had faded, leaving behind a terrified Emma.

Ally could feel it, too. The troll was gone now, completely gone from Emma’s mind. All that was left was purely Emma, Ally’s Emma, and she was killing her.

“No!” She shrieked, immediately stopping the flow of energy. She dropped from the sky, sprinting over to Emma. The pink light flashed out of existence, leaving nothing but the same dark empty space. She caught her just before she hit the ground, quickly turning her so she could see her face. “Emma, oh God, stay with me, Emma, I’m so sorry.”

Emma’s breath rattled in her throat as her deep blue eyes looked up to Ally. Ally choked on a sob, pushing the blonde hair out of her friend’s face. “Please, please, no…”

Emma reached upwards and Ally immediately grabbed her hand, clenching tightly onto it. Even as she pleaded, she knew she had done too much damage. There was no coming back from having that much of your soul torn apart. With the smallest of smiles, Emma whispered, “I forgive you.” Her last breath hissed out, Emma’s head went limp, and Ally’s vision whited out.

She cried out, the pain ripping through her chest as she felt Emma leave. Emma’s last emotions had been burned into her brain, and Ally was tearing herself apart at the forgiveness that Emma had blessed her with.

Eventually she felt arms wrap around her, pulling her away from Emma’s body. She collapsed into the warmth, sobs racking her body. The hands rubbed her shoulders, whispering into her hair, and it was a while before she could hear them.

“It’s okay, Ally, it’s okay. We won, you did it. You saved all of us, we won.”

She sniffed hard, breath still shaky as she looked up. All around her were broken and still robots, some still sparking where their limbs had been torn apart. Most of the people and trolls had gathered back on the main area on the meteor, nursing their wounds and checking on everyone else. The trolls ships were floating away, nothing but dead weight on them now. And only a few feet away was Emma’s body, slowly growing cold.

“Don’t look at it.” Dave told her, physically turning her away. “It makes it worse. Trust me.”

Ally hiccuped, rubbing her face into his sleeve again. “I can’t believe I killed someone. I always thought I could do it, that I could be fine, but then she was good again and I didn’t mean to do it--”

“Ally?”

She perked up at Luke’s voice, tears still a mess on her face. She stood with the help of Dave, and immediately Luke was there, arms swallowing her in his grasp.

“Ally, you saved my life! It’s because of you we won!”

“How did I save you?” She snorted, wiping snot on his sleeve. He could get angry later. “I didn’t even see you the entire time.”

“You shielded me.” He pulled back, eyes misty with tears as he looked her over. “John figured it out. You used your powers from the Knight of Heart and you shielded me with your love and you saved my life! It’s because of you I was able to defeat the troll!” He grinned widely, but it faded as she still stared hard at him. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“I accidentally killed Emma.” Her voice was just above a whisper, and he looked behind her, finally seeing the body on the ground.

“Ally, she killed Alec and Fran. And Ivan. And you, in case you’ve forgotten--”

“She didn’t, the troll did.” Ally argued, shoving him away from her. “She was being controlled, remember? She doesn’t know what she did. Well, now she does, because I killed her. But she was herself again, right before she died. And I killed her.”

Luke was silent, obviously conflicted. Dave backed away slowly, turning instead to guide the platform down to the main area.

“Like, I get it was for the greater good and all that, but I killed my best friend!” Ally shouted, tears welling up again. “I had to kill my best friend.”

“Ex best friend.” Luke offered weakly. “She was evil, she had to be stopped--”

“No she didn’t. She needed to be saved.” Ally interrupted, then shook her head. “I should have known better. I can never save anyone.”

“But you did!” It dawned on Luke, the beginnings of an idea poking into his mind. For the first time, he was seeing something close to hope in his mind. “You saved me, Ally. Your love saved me. And because you saved me, you basically saved everyone. Everyone here is alive because of you.”

Ally looked up at him, voice quiet. “Because of me?”

He nodded, voice firm and sure. “Because of _you_. You saved us all.”

In an instant, her arms were around his shoulders, sobbing into his shirt with tears of relief this time. He could feel it radiating off of her, enclosing anyone within twenty feet in a bubble of happiness. 

“Thanks.” She whispered, and he shrugged, pulling back from her.

“No big deal. I always knew you loved me anyways.”

She punched his arm, sticking her tongue out at him before turning and stepping onto the meteor once more. Everyone was walking around, comparing stories and wounds and bragging about who had killed the most robots. Karkat came up and put a solid hand on her shoulder, “You good?”

“Good.” She sighed, wiping the excess tears from her face. “Still really shaken, but good.”

He smirked. “Get yourself a moirail. They do wonders for nerves.” 

“Thanks,” She smirked over at Luke, then looked back to Karkat, “But I’ve already got one.” Luke grinned and reached for her hand--but she was already turning away, looking behind them. His mouth dropped open as he watched her spin again, ask aloud, “Speaking of him, where is that clown?”

As if on cue, they saw Gamzee wave from ten feet away, and she ran over to him, leaving Luke standing speechless. Karkat took one look at his face and burst into laughter, clutching at his sides.

“Humans, I swear. Boy, do you have a lot to learn.”

“Yeah.” Luke grumbled, crossing his arms. “Whatever.”

 

\- - - - -

 

“So are we all good?”

Ally glanced up from where she was retying the bandage around Gamzee’s leg. It was a couple days after the big fight and everyone was healed for the most part. Jane, for some reason, refused to go near Gamzee, so Ally had been taking care of him and making sure he was healing properly. And while Luke still didn’t really like Gamzee, they decided to put their differences aside for Ally’s sake and attempt to get along.

Mostly, they didn’t talk to each other. 

“What do you mean?” Ally asked, finishing off the knot with a pat on his knee. Gamzee winked at Luke before standing and leaving the room, tossing a thumbs up in Ally’s direction.

“I mean, are we okay? As in,” He gestured between them awkwardly, “Us. As a thing.”

Ally blinked for a second, then her mouth made a little ‘o’ shape. “Oh that! Yeah, we’re good.” She stood and made to leave after Gamzee, but Luke grabbed her arm and spun her around.

“That’s it? Seriously?”

“What do you mean?” She made a face. “I thought you wanted us to be a thing?”

“I do. But…” He shrugged, “I figured you’d still be mad at me.”

“Well, I am.” Ally smirked up at him. “Trust me, I’ll probably still be mad for a while. But what’s the point? I mean, we’re all probably gonna die fighting the Batterwitch anyways, so why stay mad at you for the little time we have left?”

Luke raised an eyebrow. “Batterwitch?”

She blushed in response. “Sorry. Picked it up from Roxy.”

Luke rolled his eyes, and she smiled at him again. “But yeah. We’re good. We can start this thing now, or whatever.” He returned the smile, leaning down towards her--

\--And an alarm cut them off.

“Seriously?” Ally frowned, and out in the hallway, they heard Dave shouting, “Seriously, who installed alarms on this meteor?”

The same as before, the group of humans and trolls alike made their way to the top of the meteor, except this time, they had a plan. They slowly grouped off into their respective teams, all of them watching with anxiety as their opponents drew closer.

“So this is it.” Alec said quietly, and Fran grinned over at him as she grabbed Ivan’s hand.

“Should be fun, right?”

Ivan laughed, and Luke made a face. “Fran, I think we need to talk about your idea of fun.”

“Totally playing ‘Centuries’ by Fall Out Boy in my head.” Ally mumbled, and Luke rolled his eyes.

“Alright, here we go!” Vriska shouted from the front of the meteor, and Ally squeezed Luke’s hand one more time before winking and shouting, “Let’s roll, boys!”

Group by group, they kicked off, and Luke had a strange feeling that he’d be following this little ball of fire for years to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise, there's an epilogue coming. (:


	5. Luke and Ally: Remember ==>

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _And in the end, I'd do it all again, I think you're my best friend. Don't you know that the kids aren't alright?_
> 
> Epilogue to Scratchbent

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bonus epilogue because someone wanted it so here ya go <3

“Okay, but we can’t do another love triangle. That would be the fifth one this month.”

“Why not?” Ally smirked, looking down at the people bustling on the streets. The wind shifted her hair a bit, and she grinned, using her finger to point out their subject. “See her? That’s Penelope. She’s been in love with Derek since the beginning of her working there. She doesn’t know Derek’s gay, but we know that Derek’s had it for Steven bad since Steven got transferred to his department. We also know that Steven’s been questioning just which way he swung, and Derek would be the perfect specimen for that.”

“Yeah, Derek’s hot enough to make a man think about it.” Dirk agreed, fingering the edge of his shoe as he sat cross legged on the roof next to her. “But doesn’t Penelope like Steven?” He turned to her with a smirk, and Ally frowned.

“Penelope’s been dating Rick for a while, hasn’t she? Isn’t Rick Derek’s best friend--” Ally cut herself off, eyes widening. “Dirk, you bastard.” They both laughed, turning to look at the interaction in the parking lot. “Sure, why not? Let’s play with that a bit.”

They sat in silence for a while, watching the people below. They all seemed so small from so high up. And so young and insignificant. Everything meant a lot less, now.

“Are we supposed to be doing something else?” Ally asked quietly, making Dirk turn to look at her through his shades.

“What do you mean?”

Ally shrugged, leaning her chin on her knees that she had drawn up to her chest. “I dunno. I’ve just been thinking lately, about all this. We’ve been gods for, what, almost a million years now? And all of the planets that we’ve been directly involved with have flourished and gotten so smart and strong. And I hear Rose’s favorite planet is nearly ready for space travel!” Dirk snorted, and she sighed and continued, “What I’m trying to say is, we’re gods. All of the planets in the universe are thriving. We’ve all been reduced to sitting back and watching and meddling, basically. There’s not much help that needs to be done except on an individual basis. So, are we supposed to be doing something else?” 

Dirk was silent for a moment, looking back forward, and she could barely see his eyes from this angle. With a deep sigh, he ran his hands through his blonde hair. He had chosen not to style it today, probably at Jake’s request. 

“Why do you always ask me the hard questions?”

Ally laughed out loud, the sound startling a bird that had flown by. “Because you’ll give me a straight answer, unlike Rose.” She smirked, “That girl’s gotten way too fond of riddles since she became a god.”

“Is she living on Chriteron permanently now?” He asked, and she shrugged. 

“Who knows? You know she and Kanaya will just keep going to a new planet once they get bored of helping the people advance. Not to mention Kanaya’s favorite will always be the troll world.”

“Unlike us, who live the exciting lives of messing with everyone’s romantic pursuits. Very important work.” Dirk answered seriously, and she shoved him lightly.

“Come on, like we have anything better to do.” She smirked. “We’re just here to make them happy and help them populate.”

“Speaking of population.”

Ally and Dirk spun around to see Luke behind them, coat blowing gently in the wind. Ally immediately groaned, “Ugh, why are you here? Don’t tell me someone’s dying.”

Luke rolled his eyes as Ally and Dirk stood. “What, I can’t come and visit without it meaning something bad?” He smiled, placing a small peck on her cheek before turning to smile at Dirk. “Hey, Strider 2. How are things going here?”

“Terribly.” He grinned, giving Ally a pointed look. “We’ve managed to confuse about six people total, switch three sexualtities, and ended two marriages.”

“Why’d you do that?” Luke asked, looking to Ally with an offended expression. “That’s awfully rude.”

“Because they weren’t with their soulmates and they weren’t happy.” Ally scoffed, and Dirk laughed with her. Luke gave them a funny look, and Dirk rolled his eyes behind his shades, sending Ally a feeling that clearly said, _I’ll leave you two alone._

He left in a flash of pink, and Ally immediately turned to Luke. “Are you seriously still suspicious of him?” Luke didn’t answer, only looked away, and Ally groaned.

“Luke, I swear, we go over this every few decades. I do not like the Striders. We’re just friends.”

“Yeah, but do they know that?” Luke countered, and Ally raised an eyebrow. 

“Of course they do. Need I remind you, they’re both in relationships right now.”

“Okay, but those won’t last forever.” He told her, eyebrows raised. “Everything ends. Dave’s all over the place with who he’s dating because he doesn’t ‘do quadrants’ or whatever, and Jake’s broken up with Dirk before!”

Ally almost laughed, “Dude, Dirk and Jake are going to be together forever. Pretty sure there’s no stopping them. Also, Dave and I have never had flushed feelings. It’s all totally platonic, don’t worry.” Luke still looked bothered, so Ally stepped forward, wrapping her arms around him and smiling up at him.

“Look, maybe you’re getting all pessimistic again. That tends to happen when you kill things for eternity.” He looked like he was about to argue about what it was he actually did, but Ally interrupted him.

“Let’s shake our duties for a bit. I’m sure Dirk and Ivan and Dave can handle things while we’re gone.” She smiled, holding him tighter. Before he could protest, she transported them out of this planet’s atmosphere and into the stars. They hovered there in the nothingness, gazing around them at the planets and celestial bodies that surrounded them. Luke was silent, wide eyed and looking around as Ally floated off a bit, watching him.

“Beautiful, huh?”

Luke jumped, as if he had forgotten she was there. “I...yeah.” He looked around again, a small smile lighting up his face. “I guess I’ve just been so busy lately that I’ve forgotten this is what we created. It’s amazing.”

“Yeah, it’s important to appreciate it every once in a while.” Ally smirked. “Reminds us why we’re doing this.” Luke turned to grin at her, but then a red flash of light appeared beside them, and they turned to see Ivan and Fran appear beside them, hand in hand.

“You’ll never believe it.” Fran gushed before they had even fully transported. “One of them’s been born.”

Luke frowned, but Ally’s eyes widened. “One of them? Already?”

“One of who?” Luke asked, but Ally was pulling him behind her, following Ivan and Fran through space until they appeared in the atmosphere of a planet far away, zooming down onto the ground. It was a watery planet, more marsh-like than anything else. Luke remained floating, not wanting to get muddy, but Fran was sprinting on ahead, calling out a greeting to the other people gathered around the hut.

The first thing he noticed was how everything seemed unnaturally shiny. Even the plants had a sort of metallic gleam to them as they rustled in the wind. The water looked like it was made from diamonds, the sunlight gleaming brilliantly off of it.

Already, most of the gods had gathered here. Unsurprisingly, Karkat and Gamzee weren’t there, and neither was Dave or John. No doubt they’d be late to the party. As Ally and Luke joined the group, Kanaya was already opening the door to the brown hut, a motherly smile on her face.

The humanoid creature inside looked up, then her eyes widened, moving immediately to bow next to the tiny structure she had been looking inside. There were two more creatures as well, one smaller. They had a thick brown skin with many callouses on their seven-fingered hands. Luke was confused, but Fran yanked hard on his sleeve, making him bend down so she could whisper in his ear.

“These are Furlowas. They live a really long time and there’s not a lot of them, so you probably haven’t been to this planet much. Roxy’s usually the one hanging out with them. All of the plants here are completely mechanical.” Luke looked around with wide eyes, a new appreciation for the plants surrounding the room. “They’re very technologically advanced, although a little backwards on the interaction thing.” She explained, and Luke nodded as she continued. “That’s the mother, next to the crib looking thing. The other ones must be her mate and other child. It’s really hard for them to conceive, so every baby is a huge deal.”

“My gods!” The mother Furlowa was crying out in her native tongue, a strange sound that reminded Luke of stepping in wet mud. Thank Jegus his powers allowed languages to be translated for him. “If I would have known you were coming, I would have prepared an offering! And so many! We are blessed, truly!”

“There is no need.” Kanaya responded in the same tongue, warmth apparent in her voice. “We are merely here to celebrate the birth of your offspring.”

“They are going to be very important, someday.” Rose offered, smiling as well. “Take good care of them, and congratulations.”

“Oh, thank you, thank you!” The Furlowa cried out again, the other two following suit. Roxy, standing behind Luke, giggled.

“They’re always so thankful. I love it here.” He turned to look at her, and she shrugged. “What? I like being thanked for my hard work!”

After a few more rounds of congratulations, the gods turned to leave one by one, and Luke and Ally flew back out to the stars. He was silent, and Ally could tell something was bothering him.

“It’s nothing really.” He told her when she asked. “I just don’t usually get to see the lighter side of things. I’m always out dealing with death and destruction.” He looked down at the planet below him, one that had had a plague sweep through it not even a week ago. “It kind of gets to you, after a while.”

Ally watched him for a moment, then came up behind him. “Do you know why there was a plague on that planet?” She asked, then continued on when he remained silent. “The planet couldn’t handle the population, Jane told me. But now, since the plague happened, two new life forms have been created, and those life forms are going to be so good. They’re already filled with so much love for their planet.” He felt Ally shiver next to him, grabbing onto his arm. “They’re going to take care of that planet, and it’s going to be even better than before.” She looked up to him, chin resting gently on his shoulder. “So you see? Even in the end, there are new beginnings.”

Luke smiled at her, then rested his head on top of hers. “Is that why everyone was so excited to see that baby today? A lot of people seemed nervous, too. Does that baby mean the beginning of the end?”

Ally hesitated, then nodded slowly. “In a way, yes. Our universe will continue, but many planets will be destroyed. That baby is the first of the group to be born who will create the new universe from their game.”

Luke jumped away from her then, eyes wide as he understood what she was saying. “That baby’s going to play Sburb someday? Her and her friends could become us?”

Ally smiled. “Again, in a way, yes.”

Luke’s mind was flashing back thousands of years, back to when he had been but a 17 year old boy worried about whether his drawings were cool enough, back to when he was just a kid, about to play a computer game with some friends. So much had happened since then, so much had changed. He had changed. His friends had changed. Everything had changed.

“Is this what we were meant to do, then?” He asked Ally. “We’re meant to provide a way to bring forth the new heroes, and guide them?”

Ally’s eyes lit up, finally finding an answer to her question. “I guess so, yeah.”

Luke grinned, clothes quickly flashing to his nicer outfit, making Ally laugh. “Then we better get to it!” He grabbed her hand, flying them both through space and back to the planet where the child had been born. Ally grinned with him, but something was still sitting unwell in her gut.

“Do you think Emma would be happy here?”

Luke frowned, focusing on entering the atmosphere. They hadn’t brought up Emma between the two of them in nearly 200 years. “On this planet, you mean?” He gestured to the mechanical plants below him, and Ally shook her head.

“Not here, specifically. Just...here. With us, as a god, raising planets.” Ally looked at him, and he could see the sadness in her eyes. “Would she be happy?”

Luke gripped her hand tighter as they landed outside the hut, ignoring Karkat and Dave arguing over who got to hold the baby first. He watched the others gathered around, then pulled Ally inside the building, watching as Roxy and Kanaya spoke with the Furlowas about their current housing situations. Everyone was laughing and smiling, and he turned to Ally, a small grin on his face.

“I think the Emma you knew would be very happy here.”

“Guess what they’re naming the baby!” Roxy shouted, spinning around. Everyone quieted, and Roxy grinned brightly at Ally. “They said they wanted to name her something strong, a name that would be remembered forever.”

“Get on with it!” Alec called over Karkat’s grumble, and Roxy grinned wider, if that was possible. Ally’s chest tightened as she spoke, and Luke hugged her tightly.

“Her name is Emma.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and that's the end of the story! without a doubt, i can tell you that i'll be posting little one shots about these characters and the canon ones in this au and it's all gonna be found in scratchbent one-shots (click the arrow down below).
> 
> those are gonna be fun. 
> 
> thanks again to everyone who read this (:


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